Conviction
by dragongoddess13
Summary: When defense attorney and corporate heir, Draco Malfoy is blackmailed by former school rival and Current District Attorney, Hermione Granger, he takes over as the head of a new task force working within the prosecutors office to reopen old cases and determine whether or not their convictions should be overturned. They are the Conviction Integrity Unit
1. The Ultimatum

Conviction

Chapter 1: The Ultimatum

A/N: A few people have said they would be interested in reading this story so I thought I'd try my hand at it. Fingers Crossed these kind of plots aren't my forte but I think it's good to step out of my comfort zone. Anyway, you can find the original post on my tumblr.

Characters and Relationships will be added as the plot progresses.

When defense attorney and corporate heir, Draco Malfoy is blackmailed by former school rival and Current District Attorney, Hermione Granger, he takes over as the head of a new task force working within the prosecutors office to reopen old cases and determine whether or not their convictions should be overturned.

Now with his new team of unlikely allies: Police Detective, Harry Potter, Criminal Psychologist, Luna Lovegood, Assistant District Attorney Blaise Zabini and Forensics expert Neville Longbottom, Draco must overcome his father's shadow and set out to make a name that does not ring synonymous with his families legacy.

They Are the Conviction Integrity Unit.

xXx

"Sir, you have a visitor."

Draco looked up from the files spread out around him on his antique mahogany desk. Only the best for a Malfoy. "Very well Mr. Dobby, please, send them in, thank you." he replied to the wrinkled old man in the doorway of his home office. The small room was tucked into the back of Malfoy manor. The old family servant stepped out of sight and Draco returned to his work, even as the sound of stiletto heels clicked into the room.

"Well, not really what I pictured for the great Draco Malfoy." a smooth feminine voice spoke. He knew that voice all too well and forced himself not cringe as he looked up into the whisky brown eyes of his life long rival. "It's a bit small." Hermione Granger continued as she stepped closer to the edge of the desk. "I'm surprised your ego fits in here."

Draco scoffed. "Is there something I can help you with Granger, or did you just come into my home to insult me. I would have thought the youngest Director in the history of the Crown Prosecution Service would have more important things to attend to."

"I assure you, Malfoy, I will always have time to insult you." she replied with a coy smirk.

"I'm flattered." he replied sarcastically. "But seriously, what do you want? I have no clients going up for prosecution so I see no apparent reason for you to grace me with your presence."

Hermione smiled in that way that made most people sweat. Hermione Granger was and always would be a force to be reckoned with. She was a raging storm in a petite package and Draco had learned one too many times not to mess with her when she smiled like that. "I have a job offer for you." she finally replied after taking a seat in the over stuffed leather wing back across from him.

Draco balked. "You're kidding right? I don't care how much you pay me, I'm not fetching your coffee."

Hermione chuckled. "I forgot how dramatic you could. No, this is a job I think you are uniquely qualified for." she continued. The sparkle in her eyes sent flashes of a particularly rushed and drunken romp in the broom closet of their boarding school's dormitory and he forced it away to focus on the cunning woman before him. Anything less than his full attention could very well mean the death of him.

"Alright, I'll bite. What job might that be?" he asked, leaning back in his chair, only to belatedly realize the move would look like a retreat to the predator before him.

"I'm creating a new task force within the CPS and I want you to run it." she explained.

"What kind of task force?" he asked trying to keep his tone bored.

"I'm calling it the Conviction Integrity Unit." she told him. "I have put together a specialized team of investigators to reopen old cases and determine if their convictions should be overturned."

"I see." Draco smirked, leaning forward again. "No doubt this is your solution to the out cry that's been pouring in ever since Sirius Black was found to have been wrongly convicted of Peter Pettigrew's murder. How long was he in prison? Five years." Well that certainly rankled the harpies feathers. He felt mildly guilty, but not much more.

"It was one deciding factor, yes." she replied.

"So you're solution to a possible problem with troublesome convictions is to tear apart every case you can and reinvestigate?" he asked incredulous. "I imagine you're stepping on a lot of toes. Are you sure you want to go down that road? How is my cousin by the way?"

"It is not a perfect solution but it's what the people want." she replied. He put aside the fact that she'd dodged the last question and chuckled.

"What the people of want? Of course, spoken like someone planning to run for office one day." he said. Hermione smiled sweetly.

"Someday very soon I hope." she replied unashamed.

"Ah yes, Prime Minister Granger. It has a particularly interesting ring to it. Of course you'd start small, work you way through the ranks, election by election."

"Are you auditioning to be my campaign advisor, Malfoy? Despite our difference I must admit it's not a terrible idea." she told him. Draco scoffed.

"I have no interest in your political goals or your little task force." he gestured to the door. "Dobby will see you out."

Hermione sighed shaking her head, but the small smile on her face told him that what ever disappointment she showed him wasn't real. She was scheming something and Draco knew from experience that this would be the time to run.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, Draco." she used his first name. She never used his first name. The klaxons were screaming in his mind. He watched as she picked up her leather hand bag and unzipped it. A small brown envelope was pulled from the open zipper and slid across the desk at him. Cautiously he took it, opening it and carefully dumping the contents out in his hand.

"You bitch." he growled as he flipped through the photographs. "You're blackmailing me?" he looked up outraged. The photos told the story of a particular Saturday night not too many months prior. His arm around his childhood friend, his married childhood friend, as he led her into his flat. A few shots showed the couple standing at the window, in the mists of an ill fated passion.

"You mother's campaign manager has connections with the local media. They warned him about the photographs which had been sold to them by a confidential informant and he paid to keep them out of the papers."

"And what, he gave them to you to use against me? Surely my mother is not that desperate for votes that she needs to blackmail her own son into behaving."

Hermione shrugged. "The point Malfoy, it simply this. It would be a shame for those photographs to come out at this pivotal moment in your mother's campaign. Narcissa is a kind, intelligent woman and I would hate for chances at office, for her chance to make a real difference were dashed because her own son couldn't keep it in his pants."

"And you would do that? Forget about my mother's campaign she's clearly the best option, period, and no illicit photographs will change that. But you would ruin Pansy's marriage? I know you two didn't get along in school but really Granger?"

"Oh come off it." Hermione rolled her eyes. "You and I both know you don't give a damn about Pansy. She was in love with you and you took advantage of that fact regularly. I didn't need to be there that night to know exactly what happened. You ran into each other at the club and because she's incapable of letting anything go she came on to you and you, knowing full well she was married and it was wrong, let her seduce you. Is that about right?" he didn't answer. "Of course it is. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to run my task force and I'm not going to leak those photos."

Hermione pulled out a business card with a hand written address on one side. "Be at that address in two days by eight a.m., I'll introduce you to your team and you will pick your first case."

She didn't wait for a reply as she turned on her heels and headed for the door. She stopped just in the doorway turning to look at him once again. "And Draco, do try to be on time."

xXx

"You're letting her black mail me!"

"Do not raise your voice at me young man." Narcissa scolded with all the grace and elegance she contained her her svelte, regal body. She sat poised in her parlor, a cup of tea at her knee.

"I am not a child mother and how could you let her do this?"

"You're right, darling, you're not a child. So do us all a favor and stop behaving like one." she snapped. "You're a grown man with real responsibilities who is responsible for the great and noble name of Malfoy. The least you could do is stop behaving like one of those American fraternity boys. I expect better of you."

Draco sighed, reclaiming his seat on the sofa across from the older woman and dropping his head into his hands. 'You know how I feel about her mother why would you let her do this to me?"

"Because quite frankly Draco, you deserve it." she replied matter of fact. She ignored the wide eyed look from her son as she sipped her tea and replaced the cup and saucer on the side table. "I will make this very simple. You will take the job she is offering, not for yourself, but for me, and more importantly for Pansy. You've put that girl through more heartbreak than any young woman ever should have the displeasure to go through and the least you can do to make it up to her is take the job you've been offered. A job, by the way, that most people would kill for."

"I'm not most people." he replied feebly. Narcissa smirked.

"I'm well aware, my little dragon."


	2. The Team

Conviction

Chapter 2: The Team

xXx

The address housed a glass and steel building in the heart of the city. Not exactly what he would think of in terms of a government headquarters, but despite the fact that times were always changing, government's spending frivolous amounts of money was not.

Draco sighed. It would appear the dread of starting his new job was wearing him down. He rolled his eyes at himself and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets of his navy pea coat, walking toward the building and through the front door. He was stopped at the front desk and was given an envelope with his credentials, a key card and badge, which he used to make the lift work. He took a long deep breath, held it as the elevator made it's final stop and let it out as the door dinged before opening.

The rolling doors slowly revealed to him the expansive floor, which left little privacy for any occupants with walls of glass and steel, perfectly matching the outer structure. The group he was there to meet was gathered at the center of the floor, all residing around an oval conference table with Hermione at the head. She was checking her watch as he approached and he smirked to himself knowing his defiant act of tardiness would only put him on her hit list.

"Mr. Malfoy, welcome." she greeted him with a smile. He found it unnerving that there was no trace of annoyance or anger anywhere on her face. "Please," she gestured him forward. "Come in, meet your team." she came to stand beside him as he stopped at the head of the table. Hermione began by pointing out the people he didn't know, starting with a young woman with dirty blonde hair and a dreamy look on her face. "This is Dr. Luna Lovegood, she is a criminal Psycologist."

Draco held out his hand to her and she accepted it with a slight smile, her ethereal voice replying;

"What a pleasure it is to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise." he answered before Hermione directed his attention to the very tall brunette next to her. His five o'clock shadow was quite noticeable and he had a goofy air to him. He dressed casually in a polo and slacks.

"And this is Mr. Neville Longbottom. He will be the head of your forensics endeavors." They shook hands as well. "And of course you know Blaise Zabini, he'll be your right hand when dealing with the individual prosecutors." she stepped aside to allow Draco to greet his long time friend. "And then last but certainly not least we have Mr. Harry Potter, an Inspector on detachment from Scotland Yard."

"Potter."

"Malfoy."

They greeted each other a bit coldly, but seemed to remain as professional as possible. Hermione smiled. "Oh good, you remember each other." both men shot her a look but she ignored it. "Now," she picked up a small stack of files from the head of the table and dropped them into Draco's arms. "Consider this a test." she told them. "There are three cases here, I want you all to go through them, and decide as a team, the final decision of course being Mr. Malfoy's, which case you will work on first. Depending on how well you do, we will make adjustments from there and get you more to chose from." Draco said nothing and neither did anyone else. "Excellent, you have five days."

"To chose a case?" Draco asked, stopping her from walking out.

"To investigate." she replied. "From the moment you open a case you have five days to find something new and compelling in order for us to take the next step with it. If you don't find anything by then the case will be closed and put away."

"That's hardly anytime at all for a proper investigation." Harry spoke up.

Hermione sighed. "I'm aware, unfortunately we must acknowledge that this unit was created for strictly political reasons and as such we must create results in a non political time table. The people want immediate results, they watch far too much telly, those ridiculous crime dramas telling them they can get lab results in hours not days and, that justice will always be done and that no matter what good always triumphs over evil. Unfortunately as you are all aware, that is not the case and so, you must do what you can with what you have." she looked around the table, making eye contact with everyone. "Consider this though, the better you do as time progresses the more likely we can get a little more wiggle room."

With that Hermione bid them good luck and walked out. Draco shook his head, dropping the files on the table and walking out after her. "Already practicing for you first debate speech Granger, that was brilliant." He didn't need to face her to know she was rolling her eyes. She didn't turn around, continuing on her way to the elevators. "The fact of the matter remains the same," he continued. The elevator doors slid open as they approached and Hermione stepped on, finally facing him as she turned around. He put his hand up to keep the doors open. "You want us to work miracles with nothing."

"Well God can do it." she replied unironically.

"I'm not God."

Hermione gasped mockingly. "Alert the media, stop the presses, the world will want to know all about the day Draco Lucius Malfoy admitted that he was, in fact, just a man." with that she pushed his hand out of the way and let the doors close.

Draco returned to the conference room to find the team already pouring over the files. There were three in all spread out among them as they shared details, each delving into their own expertise to make observations. Draco took a deep breath before stepping forward.

"Alright, what have we got?" he asked drawing their attention.

Harry replied "One co-ed rape case."

"Pass on that one for now, don't want to bring that kind of attention to ourselves before we get the resources to do it justice." Draco immediately replied.

"Alright, then we have a man who murdered his girlfriend." Blaise continued.

"What does that one look like?"

Blaise laid out the details of the case, from the way the body of Callie Bronson was found in the woods nearly an hour from home, to her confessions in her diary, claiming to have been terrified of her boyfriend, Mikal Whitehall. The time table suggested, seemingly without a doubt that he was able to do it. And forensic evidence left little doubt otherwise.

"Seems pretty cut and dry." Harry added when Blaise was finished.

Draco didn't respond as he picked up the file, reading it through himself. "Nothing is as cut and dry as anyone thinks." he murmured. "What about the third one?" he continued without looking away from the file in his hands.

"I have my doubts about this one." Luna's ethereal voice responded. "It's a bombing of a Military recruitment office. The man they convicted fits the profile to a T." she continued. "It doesn't mean he did it, but I have my doubts the investigators are wrong."

"It sounds like the murder case is the best option then." Blaise replied. Draco nodded, noticing the way Harry looked away from them. He said nothing about it as he turned back to the file, only to discover the most likely cause of his foul mood. Printed boldly in the designated slot, just under the sloppily written signature was the name of the lead investigator; Ronald B. Weasley.

Draco tamped down the feeling of glee that welled up inside of him at the prospect of sticking it to the red haired man. He'd spent a disproportionate amount of his childhood loathing Ron for numerous reasons, mostly for his innate laziness. He was everything Draco wasn't, Lazy being one of them, and Self righteous. Ron spent most of his childhood living in Harry and Hermione's shadow and he showed just how much that bothered him by the way he treated Hermione through the years. The irony of knowing that Pansy had been the Hermione to his Ron was not lost on him as they grew up and he hated every second of knowing that he and the weasel were anything alike.

"Alright, are we all in agreement then?" he asked looking around the table. There were nods all around and surprisingly enough, even from Harry. "Good, Neville, I want you to go over the prosecution's evidence with a fine toothed comb. Leave no piece of forensics unscrutinized. Potter, contact the witnesses and re interview them, see if their stories have changed at all. Also, if you feel the need, warn Weasley we're looking into his old case." Harry looked surprised at his thoughtfulness. "We'll be burning a lot of bridges in this unit. I have no doubt we'll be considered worse than internal affairs after a few overturns. Let's not make it worse than we have to, eh?" Draco explained himself before turning to Blaise. "Who was the lead prosecutor? Do you know?"

Blaise looked rueful. "Cornelius Fudge." he replied. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Of course he did. Alright then, go with Potter to interview the witnesses and then the two of you can head up to Azkaban Prison and talk to the convicted and the man who convicted him."

"How convenient." Blaise replied. Draco hummed his agreement.

"And then of course, Dr. Lovegood." he turned to her. "I'd like you to accompany me to notify the families of the victim and the convicted. They have the right to hear it from us before the vultures in the media get a hold of it."

With their assignments ready, the team went their separate ways.

xXx

Ronald Weasley was a good friend. Harry held no illusions that he could be vicious, even to the people he cared about, but more often than not he was the best friend anyone could ask for. For years he stuck by his and Hermione's sides, sometimes stuck in their shadows, sometimes shining for himself. But growing up the youngest boy of seven siblings left Ron with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and a desperation to shine on his own, something that was difficult to do when your two best friends were a popular jock and a highly driven genius. Hermione and Harry knew that he was talented in his own way and that he would come into his own one day.

He found his own as an Inspector with Scotland Yard. He was a brilliant investigator with a moral compass that helped move him through the ranks quickly. He and Harry had started out as partners and as they moved up in the ranks found themselves going in different directions. Ron became the head of his own precinct while Harry decided to accept Hermione's offer in her task force. Of course, Ron had taken a bit of a hit that Hermione hadn't asked him, but Harry couldn't really blame her. For years people told them they were meant to be. Hermione and Ron, Ron and Hermione. So they gave it a try and after it all fell apart Ron wasn't taking it as well as Hermione had. Hermione held out some hope that they would eventually fall back into their easy friendship, but Ron was as stubborn as all of them and still held out hope that they might get the chance to try again, despite knowing that they did not want the same things in life.

Now, Harry stood outside his best friend's office, praying to whatever being was out there that Ron didn't start a war with what Harry was about to tell him. Harry knocked on the door just below the gold engraved plate and stepped in when Ron replied. Ron looked up and smiled. "Hey, it's my favorite Future Brother in Law." he replied. Harry snorted.

"I'm your only brother in law, you only have one sister and your brothers are all straight."

"That's very true." Ron replied grinning, gesturing for Harry to take a seat. "So, what can I do ya for? How's the new task force?" the look on Ron's face told Harry exactly what he thought of the job.

"Actually, that's why I'm here." Harry began. "We've chosen our first case."

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." Ron groaned, slouching back in his chair. He was smarter than people gave him credit for if he'd already figure it out. "Tell me she didn't give you one of my cases?" he asked outraged. "She's fucking got it out for me now. I told you!" Harry sighed.

"Hermione didn't chose the case for us we chose it as a team out of a stack of three." Harry defended. As kids he would regularly turn a blind eye to the fights that raged between his two best friends, fights that usually ended with Hermione crying alone in the girls bathroom. He was determined to remain neutral though. That is until his Uncle Sirius had taken him aside and explained that it was his job to watch out for his friends no matter what, even if that meant taken some of whatever was directed at one of them. It was how his father and uncles had all behaved with each other and if he truly considered them his friends he would get in the middle of it. The thinly veiled threat to Ron's safety certainly didn't hurt either. He believed Sirius' exact words were; "Either you do something or Arthur and Molly will be out a child if that little runt makes my baby girl cry ever again."

Harry's affection for his two best friends was equal, they were more than friends really, siblings in all actuality. Despite that, having taken Sirius' words to heart he'd started to notice a pattern and learned rather quickly that while Hermione was stubborn and pushy and sometimes a bit of a know-it-all, Ron was usually that one to start things, picking at her and doing insensitive things to get under her skin and whenever it looked like he was going to lose an argument, which was fairly regularly he'd try to turn everyone against her.

In all honesty, he was rather happy when they had broken up. Ron was a lot of things but mature wasn't one of them. Ron was his best friend, his brother, but Hermione was his sister and she deserved someone who could keep up with her. Someone who wasn't emasculated by her drive, her power and her intelligence. She was going to do amazing things in life and she needed someone who would support her unconditionally, not just when it benefited them as well.

"And nobody has it out for you Ron, she's just doing her job. You're not stupid, you had to have known that there were no cases off limits to the task force, eventually we would have settled on one of yours." Harry continued.

Ron sighed. "Yeah, I guess." he relented. "So, what's the case?" he asked.

"The Bronson Murder."

Ron huffed ruefully. "My first solo case as a Sergeant. Of course she'd want to cut her teeth on that one."

Harry sighed. "Ron, you know she has nothing to do with this right?"

"Of course she does, it's her task force."

"Yeah, in name only. She appointed someone else to run it to avoid a conflict of interest." Harry explained.

Ron looked surprised. "Than who's running it?"

Harry was quite proud of the fact that he did not flinch. He'd realized rather belatedly that he'd walked into something even worse. "Try to stay calm alright." He told him and Ron looked at him suspiciously.

"Harry, who did she appoint?"

"Draco Malfoy."

"The Ferret!" Ron exclaimed. "Are you kidding me? Why the bloody hell would she chose that slimy little cockroach?"

"Because he's qualified." Harry muttered under his breath. He sat up straight and looked over his shoulder out the window counting the number of bodies looking in on them curiously at Ron's outburst. "Look, you know Hermione, she doesn't do anything without a reason and her reasons are rarely revenge oriented. I have no doubt she appointed Malfoy for his qualifications and nothing more."

That seemed to settle Ron a bit and slumped down in his chair pouting only half as much as before. "Fine, I suppose you're right, but I still don't like it."

"Trust me, I don't like it either, I mean, this means he's my boss now." Harry cringed. "God, I never thought I'd be working for Malfoy of all people."

Ron snorted. "Still glad you took the job?" he teased half heartedly.

Harry thought on it a moment "Yeah, I think I am." He finally replied. "If there's even just one person going through what we went through than I need to be there to help them." he continued. Ron nodded. He could understand that.

Harry, hell the whole family had been distraught when Sirius was arrested and the sham of a trial he got only made things worse. Ron was certain that was why Hermione settled on criminal law in the end. Watching one of the men who had taken her in during the worst moments of her life be convicted of something she knew he was incapable of doing had certainly changed her perspective of the world.

"How's Sirius doing?" Ron asked his voice soft.

"The university gave Uncle Remus some time off so I think they were talking about going on a trip for a few weeks. Just the two of them."

"And still no word on who really killed Peter?"

Harry shook his head. "The investigators say the case is going cold. And Fudge still refuses to admit who paid him off to overlook all the evidence that would have exonerated Sirius." Harry sighed, ridding himself of the melancholy thoughts. "Anyway, if it makes you feel any better is was Malfoy's idea to warn you we were looking into the case. Said he figured we were going to burn a lot of bridges in the future and thought you'd appreciate knowing what's going on."

Ron was silent as he thought over what Harry had told him and soon enough Harry had to leave, biding his friend goodbye as he left.

xXx

"How did your first day go?" Hermione asked without looking up from the work spread out on her desk.

Draco sighed, taking a seat across from her desk. "Well, the victim's mother spit on me and the convict's mother hugged me so I'd say it's a bit of a mixed bag at this point." he explained, slumping down in the chair.

"Any progress so far?" she continued still not looking at him.

"Well, Zabini and Potter went up to Azkaban to talk to our suspect and the man who convicted him." he couldn't help but notice how she tensed at the name of the prison. Her adopted father had spent five years there, he had no idea how she could go anywhere near it when her duties called for it.

"And what did they have to say?"

"Mikal insists that the incriminating evidence they used against him is unrelated to the case. That it couldn't have been him in Callie's diary because she had no reason to fear him."

"Yes, well, we've both heard that before, from either side of the courtroom." Hermione replied finally looking up at him.

"Yes, but those cases weren't tried by a man who was caught taking bribes to overlook evidence." Draco replied watching her reaction carefully. Hermione sighed.

"Good point." she looked away. "What do you think about it?"

"I don't have nearly enough information to form an opinion, but from what Zabini and Potter tell me he has quite a temper. Potter got him all worked up while they were there just to see how much it would take to make him exploded. It didn't take much." Draco explained. "Also, he noticed acne scars on Whitehall's chest and he's seen that before with members of his fiance's league who were caught using steroids."

"So he's a recovering steroid user. That would explain the rage issue."

Draco nodded. "All the evidence says he did it."

"But?"

"But, there's something about this case that's not sitting well with me. I can't put my finger on it."

"Well, keep working at it. You have four more days."

xXx

Comments are appreciated!


	3. Conflicting Evidence

Conviction

Chapter 3: Conflicting Evidence

A/N: I was debating whether or not to post this new chapter what with the holiday and all but I figured it couldn't hurt. I know I didn't say it before but Updates are on Thursdays. I'm still debating on how I'm going to continue once this particular case is finished but I have one more chapter to figure it out.

xXx

Neville was sitting across from him in his office, explaining a new experiment he wanted to try for their current case when raised voices in the conference room caught their attention. Draco looked around Neville as said man sat up straighter and turned to look over his shoulder confused. "What the bloody hell?" Draco muttered as he watched Harry and Blaise standing on either side of the conference table. They were arguing with each other, Luna standing at the head of the table watching them go back and forth like she was watching a tennis match.

Draco stood from his seat and walked briskly from his office, Neville on his heels. "What the bloody hell is going on in here?" Draco exclaimed as he entered the conference room, effectively silencing the argument.

"They are arguing over the validity of continuing to investigate." Luna replied. "I could have stopped them I'm sure but they seem to have a history and I thought it would be good for the team if they got it out of their systems." she continued. "It would probably be good for you too, from what I've seen."

Draco stared at the young woman dumbfounded before shaking his head. "I'll keep that in mind Doctor, thank you." he turned back to Harry and Blaise. "Now, start from the beginning."

"All the evidence seems solid, the witnesses haven't changed their stories. There's not much more for us to do." Blaise explained.

"You can barely do a case justice in five days let alone two. We owe it to everyone involved to keep going regardless of what we discover." Harry replied rather heatedly.

"I thought you of all people would want to be done with this case quickly. Isn't it your best mate's case?"

"All the more reason to keep going and leave no doubt that he was right."

"Potter is right Blaise." Draco interrupted and lord help him he never thought he'd ever say that. "We've been given five days for every case and we will use every bit of that time to find or reinforce the truth. Not doing so could open us up to public scrutiny and could very well hurt our chances of doing our jobs in the future." Draco sighed. "No matter what we find we push forward. Now, Neville was just explaining to me the desire to see the crime scene. Potter, you and Doctor Lovegood will go with him. Blaise you're with me." with that he turned on his heels and walked out. Only Blaise's voice let him know he had followed.

"Where are we going?" Blaise asked.

"I needs some information on a Hugo Eads. He's a long time friend of the victim's family and was there when we talked to her mother yesterday."

"So?" Blaise questioned confused. "Something strike you as odd with him?"

"When we told her mother that we were reopening the case she was obviously angry, but he looked very nervous."

"You think he had something to do with it?"

"Either that, or he knows something he's not sharing."

xXx

"Bloody hell it's cold." Harry grumbled as he followed Neville through the woods leading to the crime scene.

"Yeah, actually it's about the same temperature as it was that day." Neville explained. "Which could help us quite a bit." he continued. After a few more minutes of walking he stopped and called time. Luna who had been timing their walk replied;

"Nine minutes, fifty two seconds."

"Alright, so nearly ten minutes to walk from the road, relatively peacefully we can assume judging by the lack of any signs of struggle."

"Which means she knew her killer." Luna added. Neville nodded.

"Most likely." Harry added.

"Okay, I need your help for the next part Luna." Neville said. "We're going to recreate the run from where the crime scene techs approximated the start to where her body was found."

"Okay, and what's the point of all this?" Harry asked.

"Well, Whitehall's alibi is that he was on the field playing Rugby when Bronson was murdered, sixty miles away. Now at that time of day there wouldn't have been much traffic so the investigators assumed that he had plenty of time to bring her here, attack her and then make it back in time for the game."

"Didn't they time this all out during the investigation?" Luna asked.

"No, according to their notes they only timed the drive to and from and the chase from point a to point b. No one took into account that the chase started almost ten minutes from the road."

"So it's very possible that the murder took longer than originally believed thus making it impossible for him to kill her, get back to his car and then get to the stadium where witnesses say he was for pre game warm ups." Harry worked it out.

"Exactly."

"Alright, let's get to work." Luna prompted.

xXx

Harry led the way back onto the CIU's floor. There they found Blaise and Draco hunched over the case file. Draco looked up as they entered. "How did it go?"

"Even with the extra time we accounted for he still had time to get there, kill her, and get back in time to be seen warming up." Neville explained. "It lessens the margin of error but not enough to call the conviction into question."

"Alright, well, Blaise and I took a look at Hugo Eads while you were all out." Draco began.

"Hugo Eads? The Bronson family friend, right?" Harry asked. Draco nodded.

"When Dr. Lovegood and I went to inform Callie's mother that we were looking into the case again, he looked…"

"Like he was hiding something." Luna finished for him. "He looked far too nervous for someone who should be confident that the right person was behind bars."

"Exactly."

"What did you find?" Neville asked.

"He had a sealed juvie record." Blaise replied. "Hermione got us a court order to have it unsealed. Turns out Mr. Eads has quite a temper on him as well."

Luna sat down beside Blaise and looked over the file. "He was also arrested for peeping when he was sixteen." she continued.

"Disgusting, but not exactly a segway to murder." Harry replied.

"Not unless you add it to the fact that upon investigation for his court hearing, it was brought to light that he was stalking the young woman he had been caught peeping on. He spent six months in a mental health facility." Draco replied.

"Well that's a horse of a different color. So we have a viable new suspect but all the evidence still points to Whitehall." Harry continued. No one could dispute that.

Blaise noticed Neville looking pensive at the far end of the table. "What's wrong Longbottom?" Neville looked up shaking his head.

"I don't know. I need to take a look at the autopsy report again. I think something's just occurred to me." with that Neville stood and made his way toward his office on the far side of the floor.

Draco watched him go before turning back to the files the team were going through. A few minutes later, Neville rushed back in, drawing their attentions.

"I got it." he said excitedly. "I need to go back out to the crime scene to run another experiment." he said.

"Okay, anyone want to volunteer to go with him?"

"Awe, what the hell." Blaise spoke up. "Do you need me for anything else?" Draco shook his head.

"Alright, go ahead."

Neville nodded and smiled and turned to leave only to stop short and turn back. "I need to requisition a few materials for the experiment."

Draco looked around the table and pulled a notepad from under the pile of files and papers. He picked up a pen, poised to write. "What do you need?"

"Two pig cadavers." Neville said without an ounce of hesitation, before walking out.

Draco froze, pen poised above the paper. Slowly he looked up, eyes catching with each team member as he slowly looked toward the now empty doorway.

"Is it too late to change my mind?" Blaise cringed.

xXx

"Alright, I just dragged two dead pigs through the woods, please, do explain the intentions." Blaise said as he dropped one of the cadavers next to a fallen log.

"It's all about timing again." Neville told him, clearly getting excited. "We've all been assuming that the coroner's determination on time of death was right, but we're tearing this case apart from every angle why not from that one as well." Neville paused and Blaise helped him maneuver one of the pigs into the approximate location the body was found. "According to the corner Callie was killed before sunset because of the insect activity. Now, that's a perfectly reasonable assumption, unless of course, you don't take into account that the body wasn't found until the following afternoon. There wasn't a whole lot of activity and the coroner assumed it was because of the temperature."

They worked together to set up monitoring equipment and when that was finished Neville made sure the second pig was wrapped up tightly before setting a timer on his phone and taking a seat on a fallen tree.

"So, what does that have to do with anything?" Blaise continued once they were both as comfortable as they were going to get sitting on a dead log in the middle of the woods in December.

"Basically this, if the victim was murdered before the sunset then the insect activity would start relatively quickly and prove that Whitehall had plenty of time to kill Callie and get back to the stadium. So we'll sit here and wait for the sun to set and see what the pig looks like after that. Then, we'll set out the second pig and see what it looks like if the victim had been killed after dark."

"I see, so I assume if she was killed after dark the insects wouldn't start feeding until the sun came up again." Blaise replied.

"Exactly. It's too cold at night for them to come out."

"And if she was killed after the sun set, that means that Whitehall was incapable of killing Bronson, because he was on the field, playing Rugby in front of hundreds of witness." Blaise continued. Neville nodded.

Blaise looked impressed. "Not bad Longbottom, not bad at all."

"It's all about the science Mate." Neville replied with a half grin. Blaise chuckled.

"Never really did like Science, except maybe when you get to blow stuff up."

Neville laughed. "I got a friend who's an explosive forensics expert. Gets to blow things up for a living, which is perfect for him, cause he's always been a bit of a pyro, but good guy all the same."

Blaise laughed. "My father would have killed me if I went into something like that. He even scoffed at the idea of being a doctor." Blaise explained.

"So you chose Law school?" Neville asked. Blaise nodded.

"And I was promptly informed that there was a place for me in private practice at my father's friend's firm."

"Obviously that didn't work out." Neville commented. Blaise shook his head.

"Definitely not. Actually it was Draco who convinced me to join the CPS, said it was the best way to stick it to my dad without actually disobeying him. Quite the loophole."

"Very lawyer of you." Neville joked.

Blaise smiled. "What about you, man? Your parents proud of you?"

Neville got real quiet, a considering look crossing his face. "I'd like to think they would be."

Blaise sobered. "Ah, I'm sorry mate, what happened?"

"They were killed by a woman under the influence. She ran them over with her car one night when I was about a year old. It took them years to find her, she stole what she could from her family when they refused to help her and went into hiding. I guess she was a bit off her rocker too, not just from whatever she was on. Anyway, I grew up wanting to be a chemist, you know, make things to help people but then they caught her and I went through the whole process with the police, etcetera, and I realized I could do a lot of good in forensics."

Silence fell between them as Blaise thought about what Neville had said. A thought occurring to him and he breathed out a curse.

"What's wrong?" Neville asked watching as Blaise dropped his head, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Did Draco tell you about it?" Neville asked. Blaise nodded.

"In passing. I once asked him why his mum had two sisters but only one of them was ever in any of the pictures she had out." Blaise hesitated. "Damn, so you knew?" Neville nodded. "Your new boss is the nephew of the woman who killed your parents. That doesn't bother you?"

Neville shrugged. "Draco's like a year younger than me, he wasn't even born when this happened and obviously her family doesn't condone what she did, or else they wouldn't have tried to distance themselves from her." Neville huffed. "Hell, she probably would have never been found if they had helped her."

Silence fell once again between them as they waited for the sun to set and then;

"Damn that's fucked up." Blaise said, and Neville was surprised by the laugh that came out at Blaise's blunt observation.

As they sobered Neville spoke. "Don't tell Draco huh? If he doesn't already know I'd prefer he doesn't. I think I could really like this job and I don't want it to be awkward."

Blaise wordlessly agreed as the last rays of the sun dipped below the horizon and the alarm on Neville's phone went off.

"Alright, let's switch'em out."

xXx

 **Constructive Criticism welcome**


	4. The Innocent Man

Conviction

Chapter 4: The Innocent Man

 **A/N: Sorry I'm a day late but I got caught up writing something else and totally put this off for too long.**

xXx

"How did it go?" Harry asked as Blaise and Neville stepped into the office the next morning. It was obvious that whatever went on last night the two men had grown a bit closer.

"I will never eat bacon again." Blaise replied and Neville laughed. Draco seemed to notice the change between Neville and Blaise as well, but said nothing as he sat forward in his chair, waiting.

"The coroner got the time of death wrong." Neville began as he pulled his results out of his bag and passed them across the table to Draco.

"What does that mean for Whitehall?" Luna asked looking over Draco's shoulder.

"It means that when our victim died," Blaise began. "Whitehall was on the field playing rugby in front of a few hundred witnesses."

"And you're sure?" Draco asked. Neville nodded.

"The experiment we ran was sound, we documented every step, took every precaution. Left no stone unturned if you will. I stand by these results." Neville spoke adamantly.

"Alright, we still have another day to investigate. Let's see if we can't dig up some evidence on our new suspect." Draco said. "Potter, get a hold of Weasley and see if he can come in. Turns out he made an inquiry on Hugo Eads during the investigation but it was thrown out when they arrested Whitehall to avoid conflict during the trial. I want to know his thoughts on this guy. Luna, work up a full psyche profile on this guy, I'll get a hold of Hermione and see if she can't get you a warrant for his full medical history. Neville, go over the evidence again, now that we know he couldn't have killed her we need to see if the evidence lines up with anyone else. Blaise, get the paperwork together to submit this new evidence to the Prosecutor's office. Even if we don't link the crime to someone else, we have enough to get Whitehall released." Draco dealt out orders and when he was finished they got to work.

Draco stood from his seat and made his way into his office, closing the door behind him. He collapsed into his chair and pulled out his cell phone dialing a number he had quickly grown accustomed to.

"Granger." Hermione answered after two rings.

"It's Draco." he said. "I need a warrant for Hugo Eads' medical records from the institution."

"The judge made it very clear you need more than a hunch to get a look at those records. Do you have something?" she asked.

"Thanks to Longbottom we can prove the coroner got the time of death wrong. Whitehall couldn't have killed her. With this last day we're looking into Eads as the new suspect."

"Well, that's certainly a horse of a different color. You caught me on my way to your office now, I'll be there in a few minutes to look everything over. Have you already started the paperwork for submittal to the courts?"

"I've got Blaise working on it. After last night I figured he'd appreciate being in the office all day."

"What happened last night?" Hermione asked confused.

"You'll see when you get here. It's… a bit of a story."

"Alright, I just stepped into the building. I'm on my way up." she told him and they hung up.

Within a minute Hermione was stepping off the elevator and made her way toward him. He'd sat up straighter as she entered his office, closing the door behind her. "So, you can prove Mikal Whitehall is innocent?" she asked and she didn't sound happy about the revelation.

"What's wrong? Worried about hurting your ex's feelings?" Draco said only half joking.

"Quite frankly yes. He already seems to think I've got it out for him with this being your first case and all. Now you can prove he arrested the wrong guy." she sighed. "So much for trying to get back to normal."

"Yes, well if I remember correctly, Weasley being mad at you for something utterly ridiculous and out of your control was your normal."

"I'll admit there was a lot of that, but when he wasn't being an overly emotional teenager he wasn't a bad friend. Not the most socially adept but when push came to shove I could count on him."

Draco had a few choice words to say on that matter but he held his tongue. No need to voice his hypocrisy for all to hear. "I'll take your word for it. He shouldn't be too upset anyway. He was about the only one with the exception of the Crime Scene Techs that actually did anything right."

"What do you mean?"

"We found a request for background on Hugo Eads that Weasley put in right before they arrested Whitehall. It was thrown away to keep the defense from pointing at anyone else." Draco explained.

"So you called him in to get his impression of Eads?" she asked. Draco nodded.

"Dr. Lovegood and I both noticed something off about him when we interviewed the family and clearly Weasley saw something there too or else he wouldn't have put in the request. Now that we know he has a history of criminal activity and mental instability he's our only viable suspect."

"Well then, let's take a look at your new evidence and I'll get you that warrant." she suggested and they stood making their way toward the conference room. "You know," she began. "It would be nice if we could find the murder weapon."

"I was thinking about that last night. "Draco agreed. "It was the only thing the prosecution didn't have. They had an eye witness that said Whitehall bought a gun from a back alley dealer, but they never found it or the weapon that killed our victim for that matter."

"You may be able to trace it back to the real killer. That is if you can find it after all this time."

xXx

Hermione, Luna and Neville were huddled together at the end of the conference table when Harry led Ron off the elevator. Ron didn't look nearly as angry or put out as Draco had assumed her would and he chalked that up to Harry's ability to calm the redhead down.

The two Inspectors stepped into the room and Draco stood offering his hand to Ron, much to Ron's surprise. "Inspector Weasley, thanks for coming in." Draco greeted him. He gestured to the open seat across from him.

"So, Harry said you want to ask some questions about my investigation." Ron began. Draco nodded.

"A few, yes." he said. "I mostly just want to know your impression of Hugo Eads." Draco continued. Ron perked up at that. "You put in a request for background on him, but it was discarded after Whitehall was arrested. Why did you put in the request?"

"He was creepy." Ron said without hesitation. "I mean to be frank about it, he was unsettling to be around. I watched him interact with her family and it was obvious he made them all uncomfortable but not in a way that made you think he was dangerous. It was just the way he behaved while mourning that made me stop and think about it." Ron sighed. "Of course, like you said, the request for background was thrown out after we arrested Whitehall. I asked about it later and was told not to make the defense's job any easier."

"You said it was his behavior in mourning, what do you mean?" Luna spoke up from the other end of the table, drawing Hermione and Neville's attention to the conversation as well.

"He was…" Ron hesitated trying to find the right words. "Dramatic, I suppose would be the word for it. It was like he was putting on a show. Like he was competing with everyone else on how devastated they all were."

Luna hummed in thought.

"Does that mean something for your profile?" Harry asked.

"Perhaps. It sounds like, and this is just speculation mind you, that Mr. Eads has a narcissistic personality. It's kind of rare in stalkers. Most stalkers lack the confidence to interact face to face with their victims, which is why they send letters and presents and make phone calls."

"So you don't think he was stalking her?" Neville asked.

"He could have been. It's rare, but not unheard of, but, I don't think he had to stalk her. They were friends, nobody has denied that claim yet, he didn't have to stalk her in the normal sense of the word. Any unwanted attention or contact would have been passed off as an overexcited friend by people on the outside."

"Okay, but wouldn't a girl who's concerned about someone, if not report it, at least write about it in her diary. I mean she wrote about Whitehall scaring her." Ron asked.

"Whether he killed her or not he's admitted to using steroids and being on edge because of it." Harry added.

"You know," Hermione finally chimed in drawing their attention. She was looking up at the white board where evidence, photographs and the like were hanging up alongside hand written notes. "Sirius was completely unprepared to raise a teenage girl." she continued standing from her seat.

"We remember." Harry said amused.

Hermione made the short trek to the board, stopping in front of one of the diary pages photocopies. "Well do you remember when I turned fourteen and started keeping a diary. Sirius read it while I was out."

"Oh yeah, my mom ripped him a new arse hole for that one."

"What are you getting at, Hermione?" Draco spoke up.

"Well, after that, I started writing in code." she explained pulling the page off the board and bringing it to the table. "Look at how "HE" is written."

"He? All capital letters." Ron muttered under his breath.

"It's not "he" is H.E. they're initials." Draco concluded. "Hugo Eads."

"I'll add this evidence to the warrant application and go straight over to talk to the judge." Hermione said, walking over to her vacated seat and packing up her leather bag.

"Right, in the meantime, do we have Eads' current address?" Draco asked.

"We have one in the case file. It doesn't mean it's current." Harry replied.

"That'll have to do. Potter, you and are going to go and question him. Weasley, you're welcome to join us." Draco said, pulling together his papers and walking out.

"If you don't mind Hermione, I'd like to go with you to see the judge." Luna said.

"That's fine." Hermione replied. "It would be beneficial to have you on hand to stress the importance of knowing what we're dealing with." and with that, they too, left. Neville bid Harry and Ron good luck as he packed up and went back to his own office as well.

"So," Ron began when they were alone. "That was...surreal."

Harry huffed. "Tell me about it. Never thought I'd be okay with taking orders from Malfoy, but, here we are. Actually he's not so bad. With the exception that he can't say my first name when addressing me, he seems to have left everything at school."

"That's good I suppose." Ron replied.

Harry nodded. "You coming along?" he asked.

"Yeah, might as well see this through to the end."

xXx

"Yeah, alright. We just pulled up to the building." Draco spoke into his phone. Harry pulled up to the curb outside an apartment complex downtown and parked. "We will," he continued. "We'll meet you back at the office when we're finished."

"Did Hermione get the warrant?" Ron asked from the back seat.

"Yes, she and Luna are on their way to the hospital now. Before they left the courthouse, however, Hermione had one of the officers call in a request for information on Hugo Eads. Apparently he's recently had a restraining order taken out on him."

"By who?' Harry asked as they all climbed out of the car.

"His girlfriend, Miranda Covey, or former girlfriend, if the accusations that got her the restraining order are anything to go by." he explained. They advanced on the building, entering through the front lobby and taking the elevator at the back of the bottom level. They took the lift to the fifteenth floor and found the appropriate room near the end of the hall. Ron and Harry flanked the door, while Draco, unarmed as he was decided it was best to keep out of the way before they knew if anything was going to go wrong.

Ron knocked on the door and the three men could hear footsteps as someone shuffled up to the door. After a moment's hesitation the door opened just enough for a young woman to peak out. "Can I help you?" she asked softly, and immediately recognizing her fear at being surrounded by three men, larger than her. Almost simultaneously, they all took a step back giving her space.

"My name is Inspector Potter, this is Inspector Weasley and this is Solicitor Malfoy, we're looking for Mr. Eads. I assume he's not here?" Harry said and the young woman shook her head.

"Do you happen to know where he is?" Draco asked carefully.

"No, and quite frankly I don't care." she said. She seemed to grow more comfortable with them and opened the door a bit more. "Is this about that girl?" she asked.

"Which girl?" Ron asked.

"The girl on the news. The one on the news who was killed. The one Hugo knew."

"Yes, did he say anything to you about her?" Harry asked. The young woman shrugged.

"Not really, just that he knew her." she hesitated. "But...ever since he found out they were looking into it again he's been...angrier. I mean he's always been angry-and mean-just, after that it got worse."

"And he's never said anything that seemed strange about it? Something that you may not have thought anything of at the time?" Draco asked.

The young woman looked away nervously. They waited for her to reply and when she finally looked back at them she said;

"There may be something." she said, stepping out of the way and swinging the door open. She gestured for them to come in and then followed her toward the kitchen. She gestured to the cabinet under the sink. "In the red bucket in the back." she said.

Harry stepped forward and swung the cabinet open, kneeling down and reaching back for the bucket. A pile of rags sat on top and he moved them aside. Harry quickly retracted his hand and reached into his pocket for a rubber glove. With glove in hand he reached back into the bucket, pulling out a gun and turning to show it to Ron and Draco.

"I found it in a box in the closet. I was afraid he would use it on me." Miranda said.

"Better call Neville, he's got some work to do." Draco said.

xXx

"You found the murder weapon?" Hermione asked as she met Draco, Ron and Harry in the lobby.

"That remains to be seen." Draco replied.

"Neville will have to run a ballistics tests to be sure, but it's the same caliber." Harry told her. "We dropped the gun off at the lab, Neville's on his way there now."

"He says we should know within a few hours." Draco continued as they all piled on to the elevator. "The only problem remaining is finding Eads."

"Well, if the guns a match, that won't be your concern anymore. We'll hand it off to Ron here and he and his team can take care of it." Hermione told them. Ron nodded his agreement. "You've proven that Mr. Whitehall is innocent and possibly found the real killer. Your job is done." She told them. The lift stopped on their floor and they all stepped off. "Blaise is almost done with the paperwork for Whitehall and when that's finished I will file it immediately. If all goes well he should be out by the end of next week."

"Good, we'll get to work cleaning up notes and putting the files together in the case of new trial." Draco told her, turning on his heels and walking back to his office.

"I should get my interview notes together too." Harry said once he was gone. He turned to Hermione and they shared a hug. "I'll see you at Sunday dinner at my parents, yeah?"

"Can't wait. Sirius is excited about it. First one since his release." she replied.

"I'll see you then." Harry added with a smile, and then walked off to his own office, leaving Hermione and Ron alone.

"So, uh, how is Sirius doing?" Ron asked in that awkward way he spoke when he knew what he wanted to say but couldn't get the words out.

"He's… well he's Sirius. He's a survivor. Always has been. I think at this point he's more upset about what everyone else had to go through then what he was put through." Hermione replied sadly.

Ron huffed a laugh. "Yeah, that sounds like your dad, alright." Hermione smiled softly. They stood there with each other, neither really knowing what to say and to Hermione's surprise it was Ron who broke the tense silence. "Do you think we could get some coffee sometime and talk. I… I think there's a lot that needs to be said and with how close our families are I think it's only fair that we deal with…" he gestured between them. "...This at the very least for their sake."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I think that would be a good idea. Why don't we grab lunch sometime next week? It'll give us more time to talk."

"Perfect. I know your schedules pretty full, why don't you call me when you're available and I'll make time." Ron suggested.

Hermione nodded in agreement and stepped aside to let Ron get back on the lift. She watched until the doors blocked him from sight before turning on her heels and making her way to Blaise's office.

Blaise handed her the paperwork as soon as she made it through the door. "All ready?" she asked. Blaise nodded.

"It's all there. Do you want me to wait until Neville calls with the Ballistics report?" he asked.

"No, what we have should be enough. We can add the gun and the ballistics report as an addendum at the review hearing. I think at this point Mr. Whitehall has spent enough time in prison."

"Agreed." Blaise added. "Are you going to call the families involved?"

"I thought I'd go visit the Whitehall family on my way back from the courthouse. I think I'll wait to talk to the Bronson Family until we can tell them one way or another that we have the real killer." Hermione sighed. "So, what do you think?"

"About the case?" he asked. "Or the team?"

"The team, of course." she replied.

Blaise looked away, his hands in his pockets as he walked around his desk, thinking over her question. "I think, it has a lot of potential. We don't hate each other, which is good. But we don't always agree, which can also be good. I think you picked the right people to do this." he told her.

"Including you?" she asked teasingly, thinking back on the conversation they'd had just a few weeks before. Blaise had made his stance on joining this unit perfectly clear. He'd thought it was the perfect way to sink his career, but Hermione had poked and prodded and finally convinced him to give it a try. Of course he had been her first choice to run the unit but Blaise was a little touchy with the idea of possibly captaining the Titanic of Task Forces so he declined.

Even if he wasn't concerned about the unit failing and taking his career with it, Hermione knew he wouldn't have wanted the job. He wanted her job, a fact that was made abundantly clear when she was appointed to it a few months prior. Had the Attorney General not been interested in making a political move by hiring the prosecutor who exposed corruption in the organization, she had no doubt the brilliant young man would have had the job himself. And if all went according to plan in her own career, he would have the job without hesitation.

Blaise looked abashed, a rueful smile on his face. "I suppose so, yes."

"Good, I appreciate you giving this a chance Blaise. You've all done an excellent job."

Blaise acknowledge the compliment with a slight nod of his head and Hermione ended it there, slipping the file into her bag and leaving.

xXx

Five days later

Flashes were going off left and right as the courthouse doors swung open allowing Mikal Whitehall and his family to pass. Questions were shouted over each other as reporters vied for the answers to their inquiries. Mikal ignored them as his parents embraced them on either side, leading their son to the car waiting at the bottom of the stone steps.

At the top of the steps, Hermione stepped out of the courthouse with Draco by her side and the rest of the CIU around them. They watched with a sense of deep satisfaction as Mikal and his family pushed their way through the press of bodies.

The Whitehall family couldn't stop smiling.

"Good work everyone." Hermione told them before descending into the chaos.

Bonus Scene

Draco stepped off the elevator just narrowly missing getting run over by a clerk's cart laden with boxes. "Sorry." the man pushing the cart apologized quickly before continuing on his way toward the conference room where Draco could see stacks of file boxes over taking the conference table and the floor surrounding it.

"What is all this?" he asked as he stopped beside Luna outside the conference room door.

"These all came in overnight. They're requests for our help. Cases people want us to look into."

Draco stepped into the Conference room and took a look around. Harry, Blaise and Neville were shifting boxes around, trying to make room. His eyes traveled from box to box, each box undoubtedly holding dozens of case files.

"Well, we should get to work then."

* * *

 **Okay, so the first case is finished which leaves me with a conundrum. I already have future events planned out so I'll leave this decision up to you, the readers. Do you think I should gloss over future investigations in the story now that we all see how the team works together and focus on the in between workings, or should I continue to write this like a crime drama and leave the personal stuff in the details and middle scenes. Please let me know so I can figure out how to proceed.**


	5. Fifteen Years Later

Conviction

Chapter 5: Fifteen Years Later

A/N: This ones a bit of an intro into the next case and little background on Hermione and Draco. And finally, Sirius Black makes an appearance.

xXx

A knock drew Hermione's attention to her office door and she smiled at the man standing there. He lifted a bag of take away up to show her and she ushered him in, standing up and walking around the desk to meet him with a hug.

"Hi papa, you didn't have to bring me lunch." she told him with a smile.

"I know, but I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by to see my darling little girl." Sirius replied with a smile as he pulled back from the embrace. Hermione's smile widened at the term of endearment.

Sirius Black was one of the two greatest things to ever happen to her. The other being Remus Lupin of course. When he had been convicted and sent to prison she had been devastated. She had always believed in the system, being a stickler for rules herself, and seeing first hand as it let one of her stepfathers down broke her heart. She watched as the most vibrant, loving man she had ever known, had withered away behind iron bars and false accusations. Five years went by and all she could do was visit and try to lift his spirits. But it always seemed to be a double edged sword as he was brought so close to the man he loved and their daughter and was unable to touch them, embrace them, and take the comfort they were offering.

But now he was free and she could already see the hard lines easing away as he spent each day surrounded by family and each night with the love of his life. This past Sunday had been the first family dinner since he was arrested and from the moment Sirius walked through the front door of Potter Manor it was like the weight of the world had lifted off his shoulders. There was laughing and embarrassing stories and wonderful food and for the first time in five years she saw her father smile. It was a beautiful sight all on its own.

"Plus I know how you tend to neglect yourself when you're busy working" Sirius continued as he took a seat on the sofa in the small sitting area in her office. He set the take out bag on the table and began pulling out the contents while Hermione poured them both a cup of coffee. She returned to the sitting area taking a seat beside him and setting the coffee in front of them. Hermione took the sandwich he offered her and unwrapped it as they set to eating.

"So, how are you?" Sirius asked.

Hermione smiled at him. "You worry far too much about everyone else you know that?" she replied.

"What? A father's not allowed to worry about his only daughter?" he asked. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Of course you can, but I really wish you would think about yourself for once. We all worry about you, you know." she told him. Sirius smiled.

"I think you've all done enough worrying about me for a lifetime. Especially you and Moony." he replied.

"What, I'm not allowed to worry about my father; Remus isn't allowed to worry about his husband?" Hermione teased and Sirius laughed.

"Touché, Kitten." he replied sighing. "You've already done so much for me though; you shouldn't have to worry yourself anymore."

Hermione smiled. "It was the least I could do, Papa."

Sirius smiled, pulling her closer and laying a kiss at her temple. "Have we ever told you how damn proud we are of you?" he asked.

"Once or twice." she joked in reply.

Sirius looked like he was about to say something else when a knock at the door cut him off. They looked across the room in time to see the door open, revealing Draco Malfoy.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt." he said.

"That's already Draco, come in." Hermione replied and he did as he was told.

"Sirius, it's good to see you." Draco greeted his older cousin as said man stood to shake his hand.

"Likewise, how's your mum?" Sirius replied.

"She's well. She's looking forward to seeing you over the holidays."

"Well the feelings mutual." he told him turning to Hermione. "Perhaps I should step out." he gestured to the door.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary." Draco interrupted Hermione's reply. "I just came to drop off our newest case file." he continued handing over the file he'd carried in. Hermione took it, opening it up.

"This case is fifteen years old." she stated incredulously.

"Potter brought it up. Says there's something about it that doesn't sit well with him." Draco explained. "He's always had good instincts; it couldn't hurt to take a look."

"If the conviction was right all along, we can use the reinvestigation to deny him parole in a few years." Hermione added.

"My thoughts exactly."

"Hell must be freezing over." Sirius said, drawing their attention back to the sofa where he'd reclaimed his seat. He was sitting back comfortably an arm slung over the back like he hadn't a care in the world. "Not only did you compliment Harry but the two of you are having a conversation without biting each other's heads off. What's next, are you coming to Christmas dinner?"

Hermione coughed to cover the laugh as Draco rolled his eyes. "Mother has informed me that Christmas is a family holiday and my usual solidarity will no longer be tolerated." Draco groused earning a chuckle from the older man.

"Good 'ol Narcissa." he chuckled.

"Yes well, the team is waiting for me. We're headed out to reconstruct the crime scene. I'll keep you informed." he told her before bidding them both goodbye and walking out.

When he was gone, Hermione set the file on her desk before returning to her seat beside Sirius.

"What?" she asked when she noticed him staring. Sirius smiled.

"Let's pretend for a second that you don't know exactly what I'm thinking, Kitten." he told her. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"We're not talking about this again, Papa." she told him leaving no room for argument. Of course there was nothing Sirius Black was better at than beating a dead horse.

"I remember it like it was yesterday." he continued unheeded. "You had just come home from school for the Christmas Hols. It was your first year and you couldn't stop going on and on about this silly little boy in your class. He was a real jerk, you'd say, making fun of your hair and your cute little buck teeth-"

"There was nothing cute about them."

"-and I wanted to kill the kid, but Remus pointed something out to me. You weren't crying."

"What did that have to do with anything?" Hermione asked confused. She wasn't all that confident she knew where this conversation was going anymore.

"Well, love, you were a bit intense when you were a kid. Too smart for your own good, Lily used to say. And when something really bothered you, really hurt you, you cried. You didn't get angry or hurtful, you just went off by yourself and cried it all out and then you were fine."

"I think I'm missing your point, Sirius." she said and she used his name which Sirius knew meant she was starting to get annoyed.

"My point my darling girl, is that you weren't hurt by Draco's teasing. You saw it as a challenge to prove you were better than him, despite the "flaws" he took great pleasure in pointing out to you. Nothing motivates my little girl like spite."

"I wasn't trying to prove anything." she exclaimed cheeks flushing. "I don't have anything to prove to anyone."

"Exactly!" Sirius exclaimed. "You have always been perfection in our eyes but you weren't looking for our approval. We love you and that was enough for you, no what you wanted was the approval of your peers. You stuck with the same group of people until you went off to boarding school and they already knew how special you were, now you had a whole new crop of people to impress and you couldn't stand the idea that one of them wouldn't be easily swayed.

I'll admit I took great amusement in watching you make it your personal mission to best Draco where ever you could. Hell, it even got you to try out of the school's soccer league. Of course you were utterly dreadful, but we loved that you tried even if your motives weren't so pure."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Again, I think I'm missing the point."

"Well I'm not finished so, anyway, that rivalry when you were young children seemed to manifest into something more when you grew up. So I guess my point it, are you sure it's a good idea for you to be working with the boy you've had a crush on since you were fourteen?"

"You certainly have a way of going the long way around, you know that?"

"I'm aware." he teased. She rolled her eyes.

"I really don't think you have to worry about that." she told him. "It was a crush and it's passed." she continued simply.

Sirius shrugged. "If you say so Kitten."

xXx

"That didn't take long." Harry said as Draco climbed into the passenger seat. "I figured she'd be putting up a fight about how old the case was."

Draco shrugged. "I told her you were the one to bring it up and she didn't have much to say on it. Plus Sirius was there and it was good excuse to leave and let them get back to lunch."

"Oh, Sirius was there? How's he doing?" Harry asked pulling away from the curb.

"Obnoxiously cheerful, as usual." Draco replied. Harry chuckled.

"Suppose it could be worse."

"There's no doubt about that." Draco replied. "Should just be thankful he's not over compensating."

"I don't think we would have been able to tell if he was." Harry replied amused and they shared a laugh.

It seemed to fade away in that moment. The past that is. Years of hating each other growing up falling away as they shared a laugh. It seemed like maturity had taken hold at some point and while Draco was pleased to see Harry was trying, he was rather surprised with himself for his composure. Where Hermione had been his academic rival, Harry had been his sports rival. He spent years trying to best them and falling just short time and time again. Of course there were moment where he came out on top but they were the stars and it wore on him heavily when he went home each break.

His father was a stickler for perfection and while his mother thought the fact that out of school of nearly a thousand students her son was at the top of his class, his father took his inability to best the children of his former classmates personally.

Lucius Malfoy was an intense man. He'd spent most of Draco's childhood grooming him to take over the family company, but Draco wanted none of that. He didn't want to be a bitter old man like his father or his grandfather. He didn't want to follow in their footsteps taking on the responsibility of trying to run a company that took up his father's time and most of his free time as well. Lucius spent more time working most days than with the wife he claimed to love and the son who was such a monumental disappointment.

Draco was ashamed to say that it was Lucius' attitude toward him that drove him to be the bully he'd been in school. He was thankful that he had realized what a mistake that was near the end and was able to pull back a bit and set a new tone, but the fact of the matter was, he had been horrible to people who had the potential to be his friends, who probably would have been happy to be his friends if he hadn't pushed them away so much with his harsh words.

But that was in the past and this case was in the present.

Harry pulled the car into the driveway of the brick row house in Becontree. It was one of the rare few houses on the block that wasn't built up against the ones next to it. One of the older houses that was there long before they built up the neighborhood with new homes in the 60s. A car was already sitting outside the house and they climbed out of the car, making their way up the front walk to the opened door where Blaise Zabini was leaning against the frame.

"Everything alright with Granger?" he called out as they approached.

"Peachy."

"No arguments over how old the case is?" he continued as they stepped into the house.

"No, she took it pretty well. Even came up with a way it could help the department if the conviction holds up." Draco explained.

"That sounds just like Hermione." Blaise replied. The three men joined Neville and Luna in the living room. The house was devoid of furniture and while it had been kept clean it was far from as nice as one would expect given the surrounding houses. The house itself had been occupied only once since the murder and after that it had fallen back to the real estate developers completely unsellable for the last thirteen years.

Draco took a deep breath. "This case as you're all aware is much older than the previous so we're going to do this a little differently. We're going to have to pull all our resources and expertise on this one." he explained. He nodded to Neville. "Alright Longbottom, walk us through it."

"Okay. Nigel Henshaw, 87, was murdered here," he gestured to a spot on the hardwood floor. "Coroner says cause of death was a blow to the back of the head with a small headed blunt instrument. Most likely a hammer, which was never recovered. The house was clearly rifled through which led investigators to believe that it was a robbery gone wrong. Fingerprints were found all throughout the house, Henshaw's and the convicted, Peter Jones. There was also a third set still unidentified."

"So do the investigators think he walked in on the burglary?" Harry asked.

"Well that's the thing. Henshaw rarely left the house. He had no family and kept to himself. There's no evidence he would have ever been out of the house long enough for someone to break in." Neville explained.

"Which was Jones' main defense." Blaise cut in. "He claimed his fingerprints and DNA were found in the house because he was a friend of Henshaw's and he helped the old man out because of his feeble condition."

"Not a bad defense." Draco replied. "Of course it's not good either. Even a mediocre prosecutor could poke holes in it without much effort."

"And a mediocre prosecutor did." Harry interjected. "Fifteen years ago, the lead prosecutor on the case was Dolores Umbridge. Cornelius Fudge's right hand and personal barnacle."

"Great, that means we have to interview her." Blaise replied. "I'm saying it now. I'm not going anywhere near that pink monstrosity."

"Do we even know where she is?" Draco asked.

"Living in abject failure, a social and political pariah on the verge of utter ruin in the midst of an open ethics investigation." Luna replied far too haughty to be objective.

"Didn't much like her either, huh?" Neville asked amused.

"She called me flighty. I am not flighty. Eccentric maybe, but never flighty." Luna turned her nose up much to the team's amusement.

"Anyway," Draco began. "Shall we continue?" He gestured to Neville to move forward with the walk through.

"Right, so, evidence shows that the killer ran out of the living room," he continued leading them on the path toward the back of the house. "Through the connecting hall and out the back door in the kitchen. They then, jumped the chain link fence and ran through the back alley toward the end of the street where they lost the trail." they were now standing in the back yard and resolutely ignoring the busy body neighbors watching with morbid curiosity. "Scene techs scoured the entire area in every direction and found nothing that could have been the murder weapon. Given how brutal the murder was, it would most definitely have left trace evidence on the contact point."

"Okay, so, we've established that Jones claimed his fingerprints and DNA were all over the house because he was a friend of Henshaw's." Harry began. "But CSI found his fingerprints in locations he would have had no reason to be anywhere near."

"Yes, he had an excuse for that too." Luna told him. "He says he came over to help Henshaw as he usually did and found the body. His fingerprints are on the body because he checked for a pulse and also along the areas that were ransacked because he was taking stock of everything."

Neville nodded. "He also used that as a reason they found blood on his clothes. He said he heard a car pull up, looked out the window and saw it was the police, panicked, running out the back door."

"Is that all?" Draco asked as the team moved back into the house and out of the way of prying eyes.

"Pretty much." Neville replied.

"Alright then. Do what you can here and get to work going over forensics. Harry, take Luna and canvas the neighborhood, I think it's obvious by now that someone in this neighborhood would have noticed something." Draco said before turning to Blaise. Blaise grimaced.

"You're going to make me talk to that Pitbull of a woman aren't you?"

"Now Blaise, don't say things like that." Draco replied. "Pit Bulls get enough of a bad rap without the comparison. Besides, she's certainly not going to talk to me if I take the only person she hates as much as Hermione." he continued gesturing to Harry.

Blaise sighed. "You remember that time in school when I stole all your clothes out of your sport locker after practice and you had to make the trek all the way to the dorms from the field locker room in only a towel?"

"Vividly." Draco scowled.

"This isn't revenge for that is it?"

Draco smirked. "Now, Blaise, would I do that?"

"Yes." Harry replied at the same time Luna said;

"I think so." offhandedly as if making a simple observation of one of her patients.

All Neville could do was laugh.


	6. Pink Is Not a Primary Color

Conviction

Chapter 6: Pink is Not a Primary Color

xXx

"I hate this woman." Blaise said as he looked up at the old town house in the heart of Kensington.

"I'm aware." Draco replied standing beside him.

The terrace house was classy in the way that most old things were, all white facade with black wrought iron accents, but Dolores Umbridge had taken it and utterly destroyed that historical class afforded to this area of London. Lawn ornaments and decorations were spread tastefully throughout the property but any tastefulness was belayed by the brightness of the pink in which they were painted. Cats of all kinds patrolled the grounds watching them with glowing, suspicious eyes.

"She's the devil incarnate." Blaise continued. Draco snorted.

"Should have met my great aunt Walburga." he muttered ascending the front stairs, pulling his pea coat tight to stave off the harsh December air. The two men stopped in front of the door.

"I hate this woman." Blaise said.

"You said that already." Draco replied knocking on the door. It opened within a few moments to an older gentleman in traditional butler's apparel.

"We're here to see Miss Umbridge." Draco told him. He practically turned his nose up at them.

"Miss Umbridge is not receiving guests at this time." the side eye at Blaise left little to the imagination.

Draco scowled. "Well then, do be sure to inform her that Lucius Malfoy's son, _Draco_ and his associate Mr. _Zabini_ were here to see her. And that we need her to contact us immediately." he replied calling forth the snotty attitude he'd learned from his father. Blaise looked all too amused as the butler paled.

"I see, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Zabini, my apologies, I did not recognize you. Please, forgive me and do come in." he told them, stepping aside to allow them entrance. They stepped over the threshold, stepping aside in the foyer and allowing the butler to take their coats. He then led them into an ornate sitting room off the foyer and bade them take a seat before he disappeared to inform Umbridge of her guests.

"First time in six years my name was actually used to get something for me." Zabini told him eyeing a tabby as suspiciously as it eyed him. He skirted around it, perching precariously on the edge of an old Victorian sofa.

"Yeah, I try to avoid that too." Draco replied. "Alas, as much as I hate to admit it, it comes in handy."

Blaise hummed in agreement narrowly dodging the swipe of a paw from a particularly nasty calico. "Bloody things have got it out for me." he grumbled much to Draco's amusement. "Who needs this many cats?" Draco agreed, having counted thirteen since they'd arrived.

Dolores Umbridge was the kind of woman who gave even the most right wing of conservative's reason to pause. She was an elitist who believed herself in far higher standing than her modest beginnings could in fact boast. She'd married rich, was widowed richer and turned to politics. She'd been a lawyer at some point though not a very good one. She'd bluffed her way to the top using her money to garner favor and become something she was wholly unqualified to be.

She'd started out as a prosecutor for the CPS and riding the coattails of her "friend" Cornelius Fudge, became the CPS Chief Executive to Fudge's Director of Public Prosecutions. Fudge had had his sights set on ousting Kingsley Shacklebot as Attorney General for England And Wales when Hermione, having worked her way through the ranks, cutting her teeth on high profile cases, brought to light his own corruption. Thus ending Fudge's rise to power and subsequently Umbridge's as well.

Now in the four months since she'd been fired by Kingsley and humiliated with a very public ethics investigation, very little had been seen of Dolores, even amongst the high societal circles she clung to like a life raft.

"Draco." Dolores' voice cut through the room with an air of regality she had not been born with. She stepped into the room wearing a painfully bright pink wool suit skirt. Her hair was neat but her curls were not nearly as tightly wound as they would have been had she had the time to prepare for company and the overabundance of color in her cheeks told him she'd liberally applied her rouge in the hope of hiding what he could only assume was a colorless complexion. "What a wonderful surprise my dear." she continued greeting him in an all too familiar manner. She turned to Blaise next and did the same. "Tell me, how are your parents, I have not seen much of anyone as of late, I haven't been feeling quite myself, you understand." she took a seat on the opposite end of the sofa and smiled in that deceptively pleasant way that to anyone who didn't know her looked rather deranged. "How is your mother's campaign, Draco, I hear her win is all but finalized."

"She's well ma'am. We are rather confident in her victory." Draco replied politely.

"And your father?" she asked.

"I wouldn't know." Draco continued in tone that told her exactly how much he wanted to talk about the oldest Malfoy.

Taking the hint, Dolores turned to Blaise. "And your family my dear?"

"They are also doing well." he replied without going into detail. Blaise wanted to talk about his family even less than Draco did, especially with a woman who was renowned for using whatever you said against you in one form or another.

"Well that's always good to hear." Dolores said her smile strained as she sensed that they were not hear as the children of her old "friends". "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"The Henshaw murder." Draco got right to it. The smile dropped off her face completely.

"I see, so you've come on _Her_ behalf." she replied snottily.

"Actually we're here on behalf of the CIU." Blaise corrected.

"Awe yes, the Conviction Integrity Unit." she practically spat the name. "That _girl's_ pet project."

"Yes, well, our second case is in fact the Henshaw Murder and we would very much appreciate your thoughts on the case itself." Draco spoke as diplomatically as possible. "As the head of the Unit I thought it best that I came personally to hear what you had to say."

That seemed to please Dolores. "I'd heard a rumor that you were working for the CPS now, Draco, but I had no idea you were in charge of this new Unit." she continued. "I suppose we should be thankful she had the wherewithal to appoint someone of intelligence and moral integrity." she sighed. "I don't know what Kingsley was thinking appointing someone who so easily turned on her own people, but what can you expect of someone of lower breeding."

"You would know." Blaise muttered under his breath and Draco shot him a look. Dolores appeared not to have heard the remark and continued on.

"As much as I would hate to help her out in anyway, I simply can't turn my back on an old friend. So, what exactly do you want to know?"

"Your impressions for starters. What did you think of Jones?"

Confusion crossed her face for a moment before; "Well, he seemed, nice enough I suppose. He had a bright future ahead of him. It seemed rather tragic the way it all ended."

Draco shared a look with Blaise.

"Did anything strike you as odd about the conclusions the investigators came to?" Blaise continued.

"No, not really. The truth of the matter is, I had no doubts about the case." she said resolutely. Draco nodded.

"Well, I suppose that's it then." he said standing up. Blaise followed his lead as well as Dolores. "May we call on you again should have any more questions?"

"Of course dear, the Malfoy's are always welcome here." she told them as they left her in the sitting room. They gathered their coats from the butler in the foyer and stepped out of the house together.

"She had no idea what we were talking about did she?" Draco asked as they made their way to their car parked down the road.

"Not a clue. I'd bet money she thought the vic's name was Jones Henshaw." Blaise replied.

"Did you smell alcohol maybe?"

"I couldn't smell anything through the damn cats." Blaise groused. "I hate cats."

"You didn't hate Hermione's cat in school. What was its name?" Draco teased.

"Crookshanks was different. He was fat and lazy and would sit and cuddle and not bother you like most cats do. Who doesn't love a good cuddle?" Blaise replied unperturbed.

Draco laughed. "Who knew you were such a softie mate."

"Well I'm just full of surprises." Blaise replied as they climbed into their car. "Anyway, so what's the deal with Umbridge? She clearly had no idea what we're talking about, you think she's losing it?"

"It's possible. According to reports she's barely left the house in four months, she's probably going stir crazy. Maybe if we get her to come to the office she'll be more herself." Draco suggested.

Blaise snorted. "Not sure I want her to be any more herself. Some of that shit she said about Hermione was laughable. I may not be the woman's best friend but she's got far more class than that pink monstrosity ever has."

Draco snorted. "Amen, mate."

"So what now?" Blaise asked. "Umbridge is clearly no help, where do we go from here?"

"I think we should go talk to Peter Jones." Draco suggested. Blaise sighed.

"To Azkaban then."

xXx

"How did it go?" Neville asked looking up at Harry as he stepped back into the front room. He and Luna had taken to carefully pulling up floorboards where the body had been. With each floorboard pulled, Neville meticulously scrubbed each edge with a swab hoping to collect any errant DNA or particulate matter.

Harry sighed. "The neighbors are mostly older folk all of whom remember Henshaw and the murder and were all too happy to tell me what they thought. Not so much what they remember or any details about that day. One of the neighbors was out though, so I am cautiously optimistic that the tenth time's the charm."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up." Luna told him. "The original investigators described the area as a small community of busy bodies with very little in the way of useful observations." she continued helping Neville wrap a floorboard in evidence plastic. She passed it off to him and he marked it accordingly.

"Yeah, I was afraid of that." Harry mumbled. He cleared his throat, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Well, if you don't need me here, I'm going to walk the grid." he told them, receiving a simple okay from Luna and a Hum from Neville as his focus remained unshakable. Harry took the back door to the yard and passed through the gate and onto the road that ran between the front block of houses and the back block.

The road, as stated in the original report was loose gravel and crunched under foot as he walked to the center of the road and took his time looking off into either direction. The investigators fifteen years ago had concluded that the killer's best option on the run had been to come out the back door and take a left toward the perpendicular road at the far end. The right side would have led the suspect directly to the spot first responders had stopped when they pulled up to the house.

Just to shake things up, Harry took the path to the right following it along until it opened up on the perpendicular road that connected with the front of the house. The road continued on after the opening but Harry had it on good authority that it stopped at a dead end behind a wooden fence surrounding another development of houses. There were no reports that day of a man jumping the fence on that side either. With that in mind he backtracked and continued on to the left. He retraced the suspect's steps following the path until it met the perpendicular road that connected the back street with the main road.

Harry sighed. He'd worked his way along the road slowly, looking for any probable location the suspect could have tossed the murder weapon, but the houses that faced the back road took their garbage to the main road, so there were no piles of garbage waiting to be collected or trash cans kept away from the houses to avoid wild suburban animals.

Harry shook his head, turning down the connecting road toward the main street. This case had been his idea and so far it wasn't doing anything for his credibility. He'd told Draco that morning that something about this case wasn't sitting well with him and no matter the outcome he had a feeling there was more to it than what the original investigators had discovered. Of course his gut instinct did very little for a case that was fifteen years old and had basically nothing in the way of circumstantial evidence in the eyes of the courts.

Harry Potter wasn't used to losing. It was the hazard of being the only child of parents who weren't used to losing either. In school his mother had been number one in her class and his father might have come a little closer to her had he applied himself to his school work the same way he applied himself to his sports accomplishments. Both of his parents were immensely talented. They were strong leaders and even better friends. His father was popular and his mother was well liked and for years, as they liked to joke, Lily Evans wanted nothing to do with James Potter, the obnoxious show off who wasted his time on pranks and just being ridiculously obtuse. He'd professed his affections for the girl who had no time or desire for him for years. Her mind only changing once he'd proven himself capable of being more than a "jock".

Now, his father was the youngest Commissioner in history and his mother had taken over as CEO of Potter Consolidated, his family's company founded by his great grandfather in the early 1900's. They were quite the power couple and had both instilled in him the belief in hard work and determination in everything he tried. School had always been rather boring for him, something that annoyed his mother and amused his father, but he'd given it his all and if his scores on the field were a little better than his scores in the classroom well he could always blame his genius best friend for not being number one in the class himself.

He'd been like his father in a lot of respects, most of all in his innate talent. He'd been the star of any sports team he had been a part of. Luckily he'd been more like his mother in the "well liked" category, finding god friends because he was kind and caring and not because people wanted to be in the spotlight beside him.

Draco Malfoy seemed to be the exception though. Harry never really understood why he seemed to hate him or Hermione for that matter when they were growing up. He'd chalked it up to the fact that he'd been number two to them for many years but that didn't seem to make sense when one considered that Draco was equally talented and intelligent and had gotten a leg up on them a time or two himself. Despite that fact, Draco seemed to hold a grudge against them for years only really backing off in the last three years of school.

Now, he was working for the youngest Malfoy. He never thought in a million years that he would wake up one morning to Draco as a boss. He'd spent years competing with him and while he no longer held a grudge against the blonde for his attitude towards he and his friends, he wasn't so sure Draco wouldn't. He found he was rather surprised when Draco was cordial and professional and seemed completely at odds with the boy Harry had known in boarding school. Not that he was complaining of course, but it was jarring to think he'd expected the worst from someone when he himself wasn't the same person he'd been in school.

Harry came up on the house to find Neville and Luna packing up the car. "You get everything you need?" he asked, taking one of the cases for Luna and loading it into the trunk.

"We did." Neville replied. "I just have to take all of this to the lab. I'll work through the night to get the tests started." he continued as they all climbed into the car. Thirty minutes later they pulled into the private parking lot for lab technicians. They unloaded the trunk and helped Neville carry the evidence into the building where they signed in at the front desk before following Neville into a small lab with his name on the door near the back of the building. "You can just set everything over there." Neville said pointing out a long metal table near the far wall. They set the bags and boxes out for him.

It was fascinating to watch as he set to work cataloguing evidence, seemingly forgetting that they were even there. "Neville," Luna spoke up breaking him from his concentration. He looked up at them bewildered. "If you don't need anything else we're going to head out." she told him.

"Oh, oh yeah, thanks." he replied.

"If you need anything, call." Harry continued sharing an amused look with Luna. Neville had already fallen back into his concentration and simply waved over his shoulder as he returned to work. Harry shook his head chuckling. "Better make sure there's plenty of coffee ready in the office tomorrow morning."

xXx

"It's not really a surprise. She's locked herself away in that house for months now." Hermione said pouring out two drinks into clear glass tumblers. She picked them up, walking them across the room and passing one off to her guest.

"Thank you. I'm aware, my mother has mentioned how much more enjoyable functions are without her there to cloud the air with her prejudice." Draco replied sipping at the amber liquid. Hermione took a seat across from him on the leather sofa of her living room. The lights were low in the flat, allowing the tastefully hung Christmas lights to shine brightly.

Draco normally wouldn't have come to Hermione's flat to speak with her, but the case itself was proving problematic and he knew he would need to keep her in the loop to ensure that all of their bases were covered. Especially with what he and Blaise had discussed on their way back from Azkaban, to test a theory about the insufferable Dolores Umbridge.

"Of that I have no doubt." she told him, sipping from her own glass. "Do you have a plan for questioning her?"

Draco nodded. "Blaise and I were considering something a little devious. Playing into her imagined self-importance." he suggested. "We thought we could invite her down to the office, convince her we need her help. It might shake a few things loose."

"And you think she'll leave the house for you?" she asked.

"Well, it certainly doesn't hurt that she's been kissing my families Arse for years. She was all too happy to ask after my parents. She also had a lot to say about you." Draco smirked as he brought the glass back to his lips.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised. She's undoubtedly still pissed off about my promotion after she fired me."

"I'm sure that would hurt anyone's pride." he replied amused. "I wish I had been there to see the look on her face."

"You and me both." Hermione replied. She smiled absently as Crookshanks hopped up onto sofa beside her rolling onto his side and cuddling up to her thigh. She reached down and scratched between his ears. Hermione sighed. "Alright," she said after a moment of contemplation. "Try to keep it as low key as possible. We don't want to open ourselves up to a lawsuit if she thinks we're just trying to embarrass her."

"We'll have to keep the press ignorant of it then." he sounded less than happy about it. "Otherwise it won't matter whether we prove the conviction was right all along, the media will use it to crucify her."

Hermione hummed her agreement around the rim of her glass. Draco had always hated politics, a fact he'd made abundantly clear recently. Unfortunately this job she'd roped him into would do very little to keep him out of the political eye. "Just be careful." she muttered softly.

Draco huffed. "Of course, wouldn't want to ruin your future political career." he snarked.

"It's not about me Draco. It's not about any of us." she replied matter of fact.

"Then who is it about?" he asked rather haughtily, a tone he regretted when he met her eye and was taken back by the sorrow there.

"The Victim, Nigel Henshaw. It will always be about the victim, Draco." she said as she stood. "I trust you can see yourself out." and with that she left him there to throw back the last of his drink and leave.


	7. 15 Years to Get Comfortable

Conviction

Chapter 7: 15 Years to Get Comfortable

 **A/N: So, thankfully things have turned around here and I'm back on schedule. Thank you for all the kind words and words of encouragement, they meant a lot to me!**

 **Enjoy!**

xXx

"I didn't kill anyone." Peter Jones, thirty-three and prematurely graying, insisted for what was most likely the thousandth time in the last fifteen years.

"You have to understand Mr. Jones," Blaise began. "The evidence that convicted you is hard to dispute."

Peter shook his head. "I can explain most of it." he defended desperately. The last fifteen years seemed to be playing havoc with his sanity.

"Really?" Draco asked. Peter nodded. "Alright, then how did your fingerprints get inside the ransacked drawers?"

At his question, Peter immediately looked away, shame playing across his features. When he hesitated to answer Blaise spoke up.

"Look, if you want our help, you have to be honest with us. Otherwise we're only going to come to the same conclusions the original investigators came to."

Peter took a deep breath looking between the two men sitting across from him. "I met Nigel through a school program I signed up for to help pad my university applications. He was ornery and rude and quite frankly horrible to be around. He was also very frail; hard of hearing plus he had terrible cataracts. So, I used to go through his drawers, take things I knew he wouldn't miss. I figured it was my payment for having to deal with him." he sighed. "I was doing something nice, but that doesn't make me a saint." he huffed. "I was a stupid kid and I regret it all but I did not kill that man."

"Alright, let's work under the assumption that we can prove that right now." Blaise said. "Do you have any idea who could have done it? Did you say anything to anyone about Mr. Henshaw's circumstances or anything that could have been in the house?"

Peter shook his head. "I talked to my friends about him all the time. Usually in public and very loudly. Anyone could have heard me. I've never been a very subtle person." he must have seen the skepticism on their faces because all of a sudden his demeanor changed. "You have to believe me." he pleaded desperately. I'll be the first to admit that I am an asshole, but I didn't kill anyone. I just… I can't take this place anymore." he laughed mirthlessly. "I miss seeing seasons change, and the food from my favorite restaurant. I...miss my freedom." he dropped his head in his hands, running his fingers through his hair and pulling on the strands in frustration.

xXx

"Well that was touching." Draco commented as they pulled away from the prison. Blaise snorted.

"I guess."

"You don't believe him?" Draco asked. Blaise shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe it's just one rich kid sensing the bullshit of another, but I don't buy it."

Draco shrugged. "It did sound a little rehearsed. But who knows maybe it's just the way he sounds. We'll find out eventually I suppose." Blaise nodded in silent agreement. "Anyway what about Umbridge? We need a plan to get her to open up."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that. We should definitely play to her sense of self-importance. Like was talked about earlier." he said "Maybe convince her that we're on her side."

"How do you propose we do that?" Draco asked.

"Consider who she hates the most." Blaise said.

"Hermione." Draco replied. "...And Potter."

"Exactly. So, we invite her down to the office; convince her we think Potter has it out for her for firing Hermione. Make her think we're trying to protect her. If it turns out she was right we have her for help on future cases, if it turns out she was wrong maybe we'll finally be able to get rid of her for good."

Draco chuckled. "You really don't like her."

"Can you blame me? The only reason she'd ever deign to give me the time of day is because of my family's' prestige. If it weren't for that I'd just be another "thug" to her."

Draco didn't respond, there wasn't much he could say to that. Draco had no experience with what Blaise had gone through his entire life, having to constantly defend himself with his own name to people who couldn't see passed his surface, to people who didn't know him. He'd seen it first hand on a few outings when they were growing up but all he had for perspective was a spectator's view and nothing more. He would always be incapable of fully understanding his friend's experiences.

Draco pulled up to the curb outside the office not long after. "I'm going to go find Hermione and let her know what we're planning. I want to make sure we have all our bases covered in case something goes wrong."

Blaise chuckled. "I'm sure you'd like to cover several bases with her." he replied. Draco rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he replied loftily. Blaise shook his head, opening the passenger door and stepping out onto the sidewalk. He peeked his head back through the open door.

"I'm sure you don't, mate. Must have left it all in the broom closet."

xXx

"It was like he was in a different world." Harry said amused.

"His focus is very impressive." Luna added, nodding in agreement with Harry.

"Well hopefully he'll have something. Draco and I went up to Azkaban yesterday afternoon to talk to Peter Jones. He was less than helpful."

"He didn't have anything new to say then?" Luna asked.

"He spent most of the interview begging us to believe he was innocent and then laid it on pretty thick was a speech about missing his freedom."

"I take it you didn't believe him?" Harry asked. Blaise shook his head.

"Maybe I'm just jaded but he sounded like a used car salesman."

"He wanted you to buy his crap." Harry finished.

"Exactly. Draco seems to think we should reserve judgement, but there's just something about this guy. I can't put my finger on it yet."

"Yeah, well, it's starting to look like I may have been wrong about this case." Harry continued. "I walked that neighborhood half a dozen times and found nothing. At least nothing that jumped out at me."

"Well don't give up on it yet." Draco said as he led Neville into conference room. Neville looked haggard as he shuffled in, collapsing into a chair before leaning over the table and passing out copies of his report. On top of that he looked peeved as he flipped open his own file and began to give out his report.

"So, while the cursory DNA tests were running I took a hard look at the evidence reports and found an addendum. A few pieces of evidence were excluded from the trial because Umbridge convinced the judge they were unimportant."

"What evidence?" Harry asked.

"DNA evidence, blood, that's never been identified. It was found mixed in with the Nigel Henshaw's blood on the floor, which pretty much guarantees it was related to his death. Now fifteen years ago, they had the technology to properly separate it to distinguish fully between the two profiles, but it hadn't been perfected yet and most labs didn't have access. The ones that did, didn't use it much and the ones that didn't had to send it out to a specialty lab which cost more money than it was worth at the time. Luckily, though, they're required to store DNA samples for as long as a person is incarcerated and since Jones is in for life, they still had it in the storage locker."

"We're able to separate it?" Blaise asked. Neville nodded.

"Yes, it took all night, but I did get it separated. I did a basic examination of the two DNA samples, the one from the first case and the other from underneath the flood board that we pulled up yesterday afternoon, and I can tell you that they are both the same blood type. It's going to take a little longer for detailed analysis though."

"How much longer?" Draco asked.

"I've got them running as we speak and I'm hoping, barring an unforeseen circumstances, they'll be ready by tonight or tomorrow morning."

"Good, anything else?" Draco asked.

"Yes, the prosecution also excluded a set of unidentified fingerprints and not to jump to conclusions, what with it being an old file and all, it kind of looks like, judging by the state of the physical report, someone was trying to hide it without actually doing anything illegal with it." Neville explained.

"That's definitely something to ask Umbridge about." Blaise said turning to Draco, who nodded in agreement.

"Didn't you go talk to her yesterday?" Luna asked.

"We did," Draco began. "But she was a little off during our interview. We couldn't tell if she was losing her mind or hiding something." he continued. "But it was pretty obvious she didn't know what we were talking about."

"Or at the very least she was pretending to, to try and hide something from us." Blaise added.

"So, you're going to talk to her again?" Harry asked. Draco nodded.

"In fact we came up with a plan that could get her to open up to us a little more." Blaise explained. He and Draco shared a look before turning to Harry.

"I'm not going to like this am I?" Harry asked cautiously.

"Depends," Draco said.

"On what?"

"On whether or not you like the idea of Dolores Umbridge hating you even more than she already does."

"Oh… that's not so bad I guess. What's the worst she could do, sick her cats on me." Harry shrugged. "I assume I shouldn't be here for this interview?"

Draco nodded. "It's probably best you're not. We're really going to let you have it. We figured we should be as uncouth as she tends to be when speaking to people she thinks are her equals."

"Well in that case," Luna interjected. "I think we should go talk to Peter Jones' high school girlfriend."

"You think she knows something?" Neville asked. Luna shrugged.

"Who would know someone better than their own girlfriend?"

"Alright, then Harry, go with Luna to speak with…" Draco looked down at the file. "Rachel Taylor? In the meantime, I'll get a hold of Dolores and see if she'll come in tomorrow morning, in which case, Harry, don't come in until I give you the all clear." Harry nodded his agreement. "Neville, get back to your lab and let us know first thing the moment you find something."

"Right away." Neville replied standing from his seat and walking out as the rest of the team disbanded.

xXx

The sprawling mansion sat on the outskirts of Hampstead. It was a lovely brick construction with paned windows outlined in wrought iron frames. The property was still green since London and its surrounding areas had not seen snow quite yet and the entire estate gave the impression of an old castle and grounds.

"Rachel Williams nee Taylor." Luna said as they pulled through the front gate and made the slow trek up the winding driveway. "She was raised in Clapton about ten years before it's gentrification. She was in school on academic scholarship, which could not have been easy living two streets over from "Murder Mile"."

"She's obviously married now." Harry said.

"That she is, she went to college on another scholarship for business and went to work for the Williams and Downey Conglomerate after graduation where she met her husband, Stephen Williams, who is the youngest son of one of the CEOs. They have two children."

"Well she's certainly moved up in the world." Harry commented. Luna hummed, not entirely paying attention. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know. I feel like I just figured something out but I can't put my finger on it." she explained. After a moment she sighed. "I'm sure it'll come to Me." she continued closing the file and putting it away. "Shall we?"

Harry didn't respond as they got out of the car and made their way up to the front of the house, ringing the bell and stepping back from the door. They could hear children laughing and screaming on the other side of the heavy wood door. A few minutes later the door opened revealing a small, curvy brunette with big blue eyes, dressed down in jeans that probably cost more than either of their monthly rent.

"Can I help you?" she asked, flinching as a child's scream rang out behind her.

"Rachel Williams?" Luna asked. She nodded and Harry reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out his credentials. He showed them to her.

"I'm Inspector Potter and this is my associate Dr. Lovegood. We're with the Conviction Integrity Unit. We've recently been tasked with reexamining the murder of Nigel Henshaw and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions about Peter Jones." Harry explained.

"Oh, um.. Sure. Please, come in." she replied stepping out of the way for them to enter. She closed the door behind them just as a pack of kids came barreling into to the foyer, toy lightsabers smacking against each other, accompanying the sounds of plastic phasors.

"Kara, Stephanie." Rachel called out making her way toward two of the girls in the group. Said girls looked up at her still smiling and laughing with excitement. "Mummy has to talk to these nice people so why don't you take your friends upstairs and play in your room for a little while?"

"Okay!" they exclaimed in unison taking off up the spiral staircase, leading the pack of children off behind them. When they were gone, Rachel turned to them with a smile.

"Sorry about that. They're all off from school for the Holidays and I agreed to take them since I've taken some time off work." she explained as she gestured for them to follow her into a living room that looked like a battle ground. It most likely had been given what the kids had been playing with.

"That's alright, we understand." Harry replied as Rachel stooped to pick up toys and pillows strewn about the floor.

"Do you have children yourself?" she asked them.

"No, I don't." Luna replied simply.

"Not yet unfortunately." Harry added with a smile. "But soon hopefully."

Rachel smiled as she took a seat and Harry sat across from her. Luna remained standing, looking over the pictures along the mantle.

"Well, you're in for a real treat Inspector. My girls are the best thing that's ever happened to me." she explained. "Anyway," she sighed. "You didn't come here to talk about my children. What is it you want to know?"

"Anything you can think of." Luna replied and Rachel hesitated gathering her thoughts.

"Well, um, we had been dating for about six months at that point. To be honest, looking back I'm kind of embarrassed I dated him at all."

"Why's that?" Harry asked.

"He was a jerk. Simple as that. He was a rich kid, in a rich kids school with everything he could ever want and more. He treated everyone like they were beneath him and fooled around like there were no consequences." Rachel shrugged. "I guess I was just trying to fit in. You know?"

"I'm sure it was difficult going to that school with those people." Luna replied and Harry looked up at her a bit taken back by her tone. He'd been working with the woman for nearly a month now, but the fact of the matter remained he didn't know her all that well, aside from her abilities in the field and on cases. Clearly he was missing something entirely.

Rachel nodded. "You get used to it though."

Luna hummed. "What about this program? The one that introduced him to Mr. Henshaw. From what you've told me, Peter doesn't exactly come off as the kind of guy to volunteer for something like that."

Rachel huffed. "He's not, or well he wasn't. His dad made him do it. Peter's family was wealthy but not the same way the other kids were. His father built his company up from nothing. He fought hard to get where is he is today and it killed him to see his son growing up like the kids he hated growing up. Acting like he owned the world like his father's fortune was automatically his. He believed it working what you have, earning it. So after yet another stunt his father had to bail him out of, he made Peter sign up for the program in the hopes of showing him that he wasn't entitled to anything he didn't work for." Rachel took a deep breath. "Obviously it didn't work out the way he had hoped it would."

"Do you think he did it?" Harry asked.

Rachel laughed humorlessly. "Honestly, I don't know." she replied. "I mean he was a jerk, but, he was also kind of a coward. You know, unless he had an audience to show off to. I can't see him doing something like that without someone there to brag to about it. And well, murder is the kind of thing you don't brag about."

Harry was about to ask another question when a crash sounded upstairs, startling them all. "Son of a bitch." Rachel exclaimed. She blushed looking between them. "Sorry. You can the girl out of Clapton but you can't take Clapton out of the girl." she replied ruefully.

"It's alright, I think we've got everything we need." Luna said, ushering a confused Harry to his feet. "We'll see ourselves out and Happy Christmas, Mrs. Williams." she continued.

Rachel smiled. "Same to you, I hope everything works out."

With that Luna led the way to the front door and back out to the car. When they were situated inside Harry turned questioning eyes on Luna.

"What was all that about? We barely asked her anything." He said.

"I think I may have figured out what I couldn't put my finger on earlier." she told him. "I need to look into it, will you drop me at the CPS office?"

Still confused Harry nodded. "Yeah sure, do you need help?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Alright then, I'll go see Neville while you're there." he told her starting the car and driving back the way they'd come.

"Good. While you're there, see if Neville can tell the gender of the blood samples he's testing."

"Gender?"

Luna nodded. "I have a hunch."

xXx

Draco followed Hermione around the room with his eyes as she packed up her briefcase.

"So she's agreed to come in then?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, she'll be in first thing in the morning." Draco explained. Hermione was still moving about the room and he watched as she disappeared into the private bathroom off her office. "Did you talk to Harry about it?" she called through the door.

"He's going to stay away from the office until I give him the all clear." he replied as the door opened and Hermione stepped out dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.

"I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" he asked, though his tone made it clear he wasn't sorry at all.

"No, I'm just leaving on time today. Ginny's meeting me here. We're going to finish our Christmas shopping this evening." she told him. "Do you have any suspicions what she might be hiding?" she continued on.

"The idea that maybe she's done to Jones what Fudge did to Sirius crossed my mind." he told her. "I don't know why she would. His father is a powerful man who's well-liked by pretty much everyone. If someone paid her to put Jones away there's really no telling who could have wanted that." Hermione hummed her agreement. "Luna and Potter went to talk to his ex-girlfriend today as well." he continued.

"How did that go?" she asked, finally reclaiming her seat.

"Well, Potter said he didn't really get anything from her and Luna ushered him out the door fairly quickly afterward. She had him drop her off here."

"What for?"

Draco shrugged. "All Potter said was she was checking out a hunch. He told he was going to see Neville while she was here and she asked him to see if Longbottom could give them a gender from the blood evidence he found."

"A gender?" Hermione asked. Draco nodded.

"The only thing I can think of is that maybe she suspected the ex-girlfriend, but she didn't say as much to Potter and she never called him to pick her up here when she was finished. In fact, I've gotten a few short text messages from her and not much else."

"Hmm, well, I'm sure she knows what she's doing." she replied. "I've worked with Luna numerous times and I've learned to give her a bit of leeway while she's working a case for me. She's never let me down before, in fact she's the one that helped me put this team together." she continued.

"Well then, I'll take your word for it." Draco added. "That's really all of it, I better get going." he continued standing from his seat. Before he could leave however, a knock sounded at the door and they both turned to see Ginny Weasley poking her head through the open door way.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting?" she said.

"Not at all, Draco was just on his way out." Hermione replied ignoring the knowing smirk on her best friends face.

"Oh yes, Draco Malfoy. Good to see you again." Ginny greeted him with a handshake. Draco accepted, nodding at her.

"Likewise. If you'll excuse me I have to be getting back to the office." he excused himself walking out. Hermione rolled her eyes as Ginny watched him walk away her head tilted as she thoroughly enjoyed the view.

"Ginny!" Hermione hissed and the redhead turned to face her with an unapologetic smirk.


	8. And Then There Were Two

Conviction

Chapter 8: And Then There Were Two

 **A/N: Just a fair warning, I'm going to do everything in my power to get the next chapter out on time, however a lot it going to be going on in this story in the next few chapters and I want to get it right. So, I apologize if I'm late but I assure you it's only to make sure the story lives up to it's potential.**

xXx

"You're engaged you know." Hermione said matter of fact.

"No, you don't say." Ginny replied mockingly. "Is that why I wear this enormous rock?" she teased waving her hand at Hermione across the room. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Besides, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the view." Hermione huffed, shaking her head as she gathered her bags. Ginny smirked. "Oh relax, even if I weren't engaged I wouldn't even dream of invading your territory."

"My what?" Hermione asked confused. And then it dawned on her. "Oh my… Ginny, for the last time I'm not-"

"I know, I know, you're not interested. That incident at school was a fluke, a drunken mistake." she continued waving Hermione off. "It just seems to me that you send a lot of time with a guy you used to have a crush on. And quite frankly he's only gotten hotter since we were kids."

"We work together, it's unavoidable and I didn't have a crush on him." Hermione defended, leading the way out of her office. "He was jerk who spent all of his free time teasing me and making my life miserable all because…" she cut herself off. "Look it doesn't matter. We work together, nothing more."

Ginny sighed as the elevator stopped in the underground parking structure. She followed Hermione off the elevator. "Fine, be that way. But when it happens, and it will happen, I expect details."

Hermione looked scandalized as they made it to her car.

"Oh come off it, Granger, you and I have been friends for almost two decades now I know all your dirty little secrets. Plus you were raised by Sirius Black; we grew up on stories of his impropriety with the entirety of the gender spectrum before Remus made a committed man of him."

Hermione chuckled but didn't reply as they arrived at their destination.

"So, how are the wedding plans going?" Hermione asked, changing the subject. "Have you tried to kill your mum yet?"

Ginny rolled her eyes exhaling dramatically. "I don't know how Lily is handling her. Every Time she makes a suggestion, mum shoots her down. She's completely mental."

"You're the first of her children to get married. She's just excited." Hermione replied amused.

"Oh yeah, well just be thankful you're off the hook. I could only imagine how that would have gone with my spineless brother." Hermione snorted. "I'm serious. She babies him; she has all his life and he won't stand up to her. You heard about what happened after you broke up, yeah?"

Hermione nodded. She'd heard from Harry how upset Molly had been when she ended things with the Weasley's youngest son. Apparently she'd gone into a rant about her that was neither flattering nor kind. Ron of course had just sat there and let his mother go off and it took Harry stepping in to defend her to shut Molly up at all. Luckily things were back to normal since she and Ron had had a little sit down and figured out how to coexist within two families that were coming together.

"Yeah, well, that pretty much pissed everyone off. And he had the nerve to just sit there, because he refuses to stand up to her. I mean don't get me wrong, I know my mum is pretty terrifying when she wants to be but he's grown man. You know she's still doing his laundry."

"She is not." Hermione said incredulously. The look Ginny gave her spoke volumes. "Are you kidding me?" Ginny shook her head. "You know one of the main reasons I broke it off was because he wanted someone like his mom. Someone who would sit at home with the kids and keep the house running and have dinner on the table by the time he got home. We used to get into arguments when I was in Law School over it. I used to dread having to tell him I'd gotten another promotion at the CPS because it would always lead to a fight about how hard it would be for me to leave the higher up in the chain I was. Like it never occurred to him that I wouldn't want to be a stay at home mum."

"That sounds like Ron." Ginny said. "He's a decent guy, but sometimes common sense just doesn't happen to him." Ginny chuckled. "Anyway, sorry to get you started."

Hermione shrugged. "It was kind of nice to vent a little. I don't get to do it very often."

"That's not healthy you know." Ginny told her. "You've always done that. Keep everything bottle up that is. It's not good for you."

Ginny watched her friend sadly for a moment. Hermione had always been under the impression that she needed to be composed in public at all times. When she was upset she would hide away from everyone and cry it out and then move on, whether she was ready to move on or not. The few times she'd lost her temper in public she'd been thoroughly embarrassed, like she didn't have every right to express her own emotions. Things had a tendency to sit and fester inside her until she could barely look at whatever held her resentment.

Ginny distinctly remembered times when Remus had to convince her to let it all go and even then she was subdued. It was one of the reasons Sirius had gotten her into motorcycles, other than of course to keep her closer to her biological father. Going out to work on her bike, where she could focus her emotions instead of keeping them bottled up, or going for a ride to get away when she needed to let it all out away from people.

"I need to go pick up Sirius' gift at the leather goods, do you want to come or do you want to meet at the restaurant?" Hermione's question pulled Ginny from her thoughts.

"I'll go get us a table." She replied, shaking off the melancholy, before they went their separate ways.

xXx

"Right this way." Draco said leading Dolores into his office where Blaise was already waiting. Blaise stood, shaking her hand and ushering her into the seat next to him while Draco took his seat behind the desk.

"Thank you for coming in this morning." Blaise greeted. She smiled in reply.

"Of course. Anything I can do to help. Honestly I'm glad you called. I was hoping to get the opportunity to apologize for my behavior the other day. It's been very stressful and I just haven't been myself lately."

"Oh it's alright. We can't even imagine what you must be going through." Draco told her pouring on the charm that had gotten him through countless functions growing up. "Unfortunately the reason we asked you here may not help with the stress you're under." he told her. "I didn't tell you this before because at the time I didn't think much of it, but Inspector Potter was the one who suggested this case to the team."

A knowing look crossed her face. "I see." Draco nodded.

"And now, because we've taken the case on we have an obligation to see it through to the end." he continued. "We are going to do everything we can to get to the truth, Dolores, I promise you that."

Dolores released a relieved breath. "Well I appreciate that. I can't tell you how much it means to me to still have your support." she continued. "Honestly, I don't know why this surprises me. Potter's had it out for me since that disgrace of a Godfather of his went away. You would think that girl framing poor Cornelius would be enough to get him off my back, but no." she sighed. "He's a Potter though, what do you expect? "Allies", as they are." she rolled her eyes. It took Draco a moment to figure out what she meant by Allies, but when he did he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

His father had used "Allies" as if it was an insult numerous times and he could only assume Dolores had heard it from him. He was just thankful his mother had more sense and class than Lucius ever had.

"We would be remiss if we didn't ask you what you thought of Peter Jones again, Dolores." Blaise spoke up then.

"Of course, well to be honest I never doubted his guilt. He'd shown numerous times in the past that he believed there were no consequences to his actions. He'd been caught vandalizing, stealing, underage drinking, and possession. It's not the most logical step to assume murder next but his attitude toward society certainly didn't hurt the leap." she explained.

They'd come to the same conclusion themselves after hearing from Harry the afternoon before. Rachel Williams had seen to that. "Now, I'm sure you're aware, being that it was your case, that there were fingerprints and DNA that were not tested or compared before the trial. In fact you had the DNA redacted from the file."

"Yes, well, as much as I hated having to do that, we just didn't have the resources back then to waste on testing evidence that may or may not have helped the case. Honestly, I was concerned that if we did find something insubstantial, that the defense would be able to use it to their advantage. Warp the facts to have Jones Acquitted."

That made sense, it didn't make it right, but it certainly made sense for a time when DNA evidence was considered irrefutable and basically magic to the layman.

Before Draco could ask anything else he caught sight of Luna stepping off the elevator. "I'm sorry, could you excuse me for a moment?" he asked ignoring the pleading look from Blaise not to leave him alone with Umbridge.

"Where have you been?" Draco asked as he approached the doctor in the office lobby.

"I was looking into a hunch." she replied nonplussed.

"And what exactly was that?" he asked.

"Well, while we were talking to Rachel Williams yesterday afternoon it occurred to me that their maybe a connection between Williams and Umbridge, so I checked Umbridge's file in the CPS employee records."

"And did you find a connection?"

"They're both from Clapton, and lived under similar circumstances growing up." she explained.

Draco paused. "Interesting, but not really relevant."

"Well, Neville typed the DNA, it's female and the blood type matches Rachel's."

"Again, interesting, but not enough. And how exactly do you know Williams' blood type?" he asked.

"I have a friend who works at the hospital where she gave birth both times. That's all she could give me without breaking any laws." Luna explained matter of fact, like it was most natural thing in the world.

"Okay, anything else?" he asked and she handed him the file she'd been carrying.

"The unidentified fingerprints match Rachel Williams nee Taylor." she explained as he opened his file. Draco looked it over.

"Do I want know how you got her fingerprints for comparison?"

"Probably not."

Draco sighed, studying the documents she'd presented him with before looking back through the glass wall of his office where Blaise was doing a novel job of not strangling Umbridge. "Alright, call Hermione and see if she can get us a warrant for Williams' DNA with what you found. Then call someone up from security. I have a feeling things are about to get interesting."

With that he walked back to the office stepping in and making his way back behind his desk. "Dolores, have you ever met Rachel Williams? She was Jones' girlfriend at the time would have been Rachel Taylor then."

"No, I don't believe I have, why?" she asked. Blaise sat up a little straighter.

"Our forensics expert matched the unidentified fingerprints to her." Draco explained. Dolores shook her head.

"You see, this is exactly why we didn't try to match them back then. If we had, that nice young ladies reputation would have been ruined while possibly casting doubt on Jones' guilt. I mean she had a future to think about."

"I thought you said you'd never met her?" Blaise added curiously and Dolores hesitated her words jumbled as she tried to respond. Draco cut her off.

"Rachel told our team that Jones was a coward who needed an audience to brag to. Did she tell you that too?"

She didn't respond.

"She did, didn't she?" Blaise replied accusingly.

Dolores snapped. "Just because she was there, doesn't mean she's guilty of anything other than being another victim of that callous little boy. Jones undoubtedly dragged her along, made her go. She was a witness at best."

"Or possibly an accessory." Draco continued shutting Dolores up. He sighed picking up the landline on his desk and dialing out. "Yes, this is Malfoy with the CIU, I need an officer to escort someone home and keep an eye on them. Alright, thanks, they'll be on the CIU floor." he hung up ignoring Dolores as she sputtered and spat trying to form words to express her anger.

"Potter and Longbottom are at the crime scene." Draco told Blaise. "I'm heading over there too, you coming?"

Blaise nodded standing and following Draco out, just as the elevator opened to reveal a security guard from downstairs.

"You called sir?" he asked as they approached.

"Yes, could you please keep an eye on her," he pointed out Dolores. "There's a uniformed officer coming to pick her up and take her home. She's a suspect so don't let her leave or make any phone calls."

The guard nodded and walked off as Luna approached, and together they left.

xXx

Draco pulled up to the Henshaw house not long after and together they made their way inside meeting Neville in the front room where he was shining a flashlight into the open gaps where he'd removed floorboards three days earlier.

"Neville." Draco said drawing his attention. "Hermione is getting a warrant for Rachel Williams' DNA. I need you ready when she calls in with it."

"Got it." he replied getting up off the floor. "My kits in Harry's car. As soon as she's ready I'll have him take me over."

"Where is Potter by the way?" Blaise asked. Neville looked sheepish.

"Out back, blowing off steam." he replied. "He's still coming up short on ideas and it's not sitting well with him."

Draco hummed heading for the back of the house and stepping out into the back yard to find Harry standing in the middle of the gravel road, looking up at the sky through the branches of the bare tree at the edge of the neighbor's property.

"Potter." Draco called out as he approached. "Look I know you're very focused on this case but I think you might be overreacting a little." he said trying to be supportive but failing miserably. "I mean, we have some new leads so I think…"

"Malfoy." Harry cut him, looking back over his shoulder at the slightly taller man.

"Yeah?"

"Your rubbish at this."

"I know."

Harry turned back toward the tree and pointed up into the branches. "What does that look like to you?" he asked. Draco followed his line of sight, to fork at the top of the tree trunk. It took a moment but his eyes soon found what Harry was referring to.

"Is that… a hammer?" Draco asked incredulously.

"No, I think it's The Hammer." Harry replied.

In the fork of the tree trunk, nestled between a knot and a loose branch, a solid, smooth pole. It was worn and weathered and protruded straight up out of the trunk. A slight shift to the left or the right of their current position and one would lose sight of it immediately. They were both so dumbstruck by what was right in front of them that they completely missed Luna coming out to join them, noticing what they were looking at and running back into the house to bring Neville and Blaise out.

"Blood hell." Neville said drawing them from their shock.

"So, what? Jones runs out of the house, tosses the hammer in a panic and it… lands in the tree?" Draco questioned. Neville nodded.

"And then the tree grew around it." Neville continued.

"Alright, what do we need to do to get it?" Harry asked. Neville jumped to attention then.

"I need permission from the owners to cut the tree." he explained and Harry nodded taking Luna with him up to the house. "I need a ladder too and my kit. I need to document this thoroughly." he continued heading back toward the house. While he was gone Harry and Luna returned with permission from the homeowner to cut the tree and a ladder.

"I'm going to call Hermione. Let her know what's going on. I'll be back in a minute." Draco told them when Neville had returned.

xXx

"That is absolutely incredible." Hermione said studying the photos Neville had taken of the extraction in progress. "It was right there all along and now after all this time it's perfectly preserved."

Draco hummed. "Fingerprints, DNA, it's like it just happened yesterday." he replied. "Neville says the DNA is a match for Henshaw and the fingerprints match both Jones and Williams. Bear with me I think Neville could probably explain this better, but he says Jones' fingerprints are on top of Williams' which means Williams took the first swing then Jones took the hammer and delivered the second and third blow."

"How does he know she didn't just hold it?" Hermione asked.

"The directionality of the fingerprints. apparently , based on the way their placed on the handle he can tell the way it was held and from the looks of her fingerprints she used it strike the blow that fazed Henshaw."

"Harry and Luna are ready to start the interview." Blaise interrupted and they turned their sights through the two way mirror into the interrogation room. Rachel Williams sat facing the mirror opposite Luna and Harry. Her eyes were red from crying and her skin pale.

"He convinced me to go with him that day." she sniffled. "Said he didn't want to deal with Henshaw alone. It was disaster from the start. He was mean and rude. He practically spit at me at one point. And then it got worse. He started saying that I was nothing that I would end up in the gutter or sponging off the government for the rest of my life. I just snapped." she took a deep breath trying to hold back a sob. "I don't even know why the hammer was there but I picked it up without think and I swung it at him. I can still hear the sound of his bones breaking. I know he was alive. I hit him, but I didn't kill him. And then Peter took the hammer from me. He said something but I honestly don't remember anything but the sound of the blood rushing in my ears. And then he hit him again, and again." she paused her emotions getting the better of her. "The next thing I know Peter's screaming at me to run."

"Did Dolores Umbridge know all of this?" Harry asked. Rachel looked up wide eyed and nodded.

"She said she talked to the owner of the house at the far end of the block where I jumped the fence. She told Umbridge a girl in ripped jeans and an old hoodie had cut through her yard and she figured out it was me. I told her what happened and she said she would take care of it. She said I didn't kill him so I had nothing to worry about." Rachel shook her head. "I know it was foolish to believe her but I was scared. She told me I had a future to worry about and this wouldn't help that." She sniffled. "I wish I could take it all back. I wish I had been able to say no to him back then."

xXx

The newspaper had a very unflattering copy of Dolores Umbridge's mug shot on the front. The headline read, _**"More Corruption Rooted Out By Director of Prosecutions"**_. The paper itself was sitting across Remus Lupin's lap as he read headline over and over, memorizing the look of defeat on Umbridge's face with sadistic glee.

"I'll never understand what her husband saw in her." Sirius said drawing him from his thoughts. He took a seat beside Remus handing him a glass of eggnog, a glass of whiskey in his own hand.

"I wouldn't know myself either, love." Remus replied taking sip and looking out at the group gathered around them.

It was Christmas Eve and family and friends were gathered at Number 2 Grimmauld Place, the home of Regulus Black, as was tradition for the large extended family. Across the room James and Lily Potter were laughing with Lily's best friend Severus Snape and his wife Marlene McKinnon. Near the fireplace the Weasley twins, Charlie and Ron were attempting to corrupt the newest addition to the Weasley family, Victoire, while her father laughed at the little faces she was making at them. Molly Weasley was in the kitchen preparing dessert, undoubtedly shooing her husband and brothers away from the plates in their not so well disguised attempts to help. Regulus was in conversation with Narcissa on the small settee off to the side. And in the wing back chairs by the windows Harry sat with Ginny in his lap, both of them staring at each other so lovingly it was almost nauseating.

It was perfect in every way. Their first Christmas as a complete family again. No prison bars and false accusations between them and the happiness this family deserved.

Remus turned back to Sirius beside him and noticed the eldest Black's attention focused on the newspaper. He could see the mischief gleaming in his bright eyes, a smirk forming on his lips that almost always meant trouble. "Whatever you're planning Sirius, don't." Remus told him. Sirius looked up at him his smirk turning into a grin. "Sirius…" he warned drawing everyone's attention. He watched as Sirius took a deep breath before belting out;

"Ding Dong the witch is dead! The Wicked Witch is dead!"

Sending the room into fits of laughter. Remus took a big gulp of his eggnog and winced. "I'm going to need a lot more of this tonight." which only served to rile them up more.

In the midst of the chaotic merriment Sirius shared a look with Lily and the petite redhead quietly slipped out of the room.

xXx

"You know the point of your mother making you come tonight was to avoid your antisocial tendencies." Hermione's voice rang softly through the library tearing him from his contemplation of the flames in the fireplace.

Draco huffed a humorless laugh. "I didn't want to bring the party down." he told her taking a sip of his drink. Bourbon if she remembered correctly. The only habit he'd picked up from his father that he hadn't tried to shake off.

Hermione walked across the room taking a seat on the plush arm chair across from him. "You know, I distinctly remember a Draco Malfoy at the center of everything. Parties, friends. What happened?"

"I haven't been that boy in a long time." he told her with a shrug. "Too many regrets."

Hermione chuckled. "Well we all have regrets Draco. The trick is not to let them multiply."

"That's easy for you to say. Everything seems to becoming up Hermione these days." he said finishing off his drink.

Before Hermione could reply Lily's voice interrupted. "You're both needed downstairs." she said before turning on her heels and walking back upstairs.

xXx

At the sight of Draco and Hermione's entrance Sirius stood from the sofa and tapped the side of his glass to call everyone's attention. The room grew silent as all eyes drew on him.

"Now that we're all here, there's something I'd like to say." he began. "To be quite frank the last few years have sucked." he continued earning a low murmur of chuckles. "But, I've learned a lot as well. As cliché as it sounds I learned what's really important. That of course being all of you. I really don't know what I would have done without all of your support." he turned to look down at Remus and Hermione who had taken her seat at the opposite end of the sofa. "And you two… the loves of my life. I am a very lucky man." he continued on watching the tears well in their eyes. "We've lost a lot as well. There will always be an empty seat at that table now, but I know that we will all be able to move forward together." he cleared his throat and set his drink down before turning back to Remus. "Which is why I wanted you all here to share this moment." he stepped closer. "Remus, when I went in it wasn't legal, and we'd talked about what we would do if it were legal throughout our lives together. Well, now I stand before you and it is legal," he got down on one knee beside him. "So, here's hoping," he began as he pulled a black velvet box from his pocket, presenting it to Remus. "You haven't changed your mind."

Wiping at his eyes Remus replied; "You're such an arsehole. Of course I haven't changed my mind."

Cheers erupted then as they got to their feet and embraced. When they pulled apart they turned to Hermione pulling her to her feet into to their embrace.

"You made this happen my sweet, sweet girl." Remus whispered to her, holding her close.

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know how many more times I can edit each chapter and still find mistakes after it's posted. It's driving me nuts!**


	9. Changing Winds

Conviction

Chapter 9: Changing Winds

xXx

The clear dry erase board was filled with notes, documents and evidence photographs. Draco and Harry had been going over everything for what felt like hours, start to finish and back again. It was looking more and more like this case wasn't going anywhere. The last few cases had been like that, and while it wasn't a bad thing to learn that the convictions weren't wrong to begin with, it seemed like a waste of resources to investigate cases that were done right all along.

"You see how that handle is on this ice pick?" Harry asked suddenly, pointing out the photo of the supposed murder weapon. Draco nodded.

"Sure, what about it?"

"Well, the metal shaft came loose of the handle during the attack right?" Harry began. Draco nodded.

"Right, they found it in the body."

"Right, so shouldn't the handle have more blood traces on it and in the gaps where the blade was?"

"Yes, it should." Draco replied. "Even if she cleaned it there would still be traces in the woodgrain. More than the small spot they found. There would have been proof that the handle was cleaned and where the blood stains had been."

"Exactly. But there was none. Neville came back with a second test this morning and found no evidence that there was any more blood evidence." Harry explained. "Now, Lassiter claimed the ice pick was her husband's and being the pack rat that he was he didn't throw it away when it broke."

Draco nodded; "It was his blood they found. He could have easily hurt himself on the pick before it was broken. Which would mean the evidence they used to convict her for her husband's murder was circumstantial." Harry agreed. "You know I think we should go hear her story again. We might have missed something."

With that they packed up and made their way out into the unseasonably warm March air, climbing into Harry's car and making their way through rush hour traffic to Azkaban prison. Most of the drive was quiet until Harry spoke up about half way there. "Can I ask you something?" He asked.

"Okay."

"Have you noticed anything different about Hermione lately?"

"Yes, actually. She's more irritable and less focused than she usually is." Draco explained.

Harry nodded. "I've caught her staring into space a few times. She always brushes it off or ignores it completely though."

"She's done that a few times when I've gone to see her at her office. She doesn't hear me knock and she's usually staring at the row of family pictures on her credenza."

"I think it started, or at least we all started noticing it near the end of January. I thought maybe she was just tired or overwhelmed until Sirius and Remus both mentioned it themselves. She's been helping them plan the wedding and Remus says he's noticed her spacing out once or twice."

"Knowing Sirius he's brought it up, right?" Draco asked. Harry nodded. "And she just brushed it off with them too? You know she's always had a bad habit of keeping things to herself. She did the same thing when we were kids."

"Yeah well she probably wouldn't have if people didn't tease her so much." Harry replied pointedly. Draco sighed. "She used to think she was a burden growing up because of the things people used to say about her behind her back." he continued.

"Yes well, I'll be the first to admit I was wrong, Potter, but at least I never pretended to be her friend and then turned around to bad mouth her to anyone who would listen."

There was no doubt who Draco was talking about and Harry didn't reply, knowing full well that he was right. He'd always been grateful to Hermione for never expecting him to get in the middle of it. He could only imagine how much it hurt her when he didn't stand up for her against Ron, but she never expected him to choose.

"Has she mentioned any cases she's working on?" Harry asked. "I know she has to oversee all the cases that go through the department, but maybe something specific has stuck out?"

"If it has she hasn't told me." Draco replied and Harry sighed dejectedly as they pulled into official visitor parking.

xXx

By the time they got out of the interview the sun had long set and the air was no longer unseasonably warm.

"Well that took longer than expected." Draco muttered rubbing his leather clad hands together as he made his way toward Harry's car. He pulled the collar of his black pea coat up around his ears grateful he'd thought to wear one just in case.

They both climbed into the car without a word and before Harry could start the car his cell phone rang.

"Potter." he answered sticking the key in the ignition and turning the engine over.

" _Harry? It's Hermione."_ she replied on the other end of the line.

"Hey Mione what's up?" he asked pulling out of the parking lot.

" _I just got home,"_ she began. " _My flat's been broken into."_

"What!?" Harry exclaimed startling Draco in the passenger's seat.

" _It looks like the lock was picked, the whole place is trashed."_ she continued.

"Alright, you stay there, lock the door. I'll be there as fast as I can." he replied waiting for her confirmation before hanging up.

"What wrong?" Draco asked concerned. Watching as Harry sped up while simultaneously trying to dial on his phone.

"Someone broke into Hermione's flat." Harry explained, putting his phone to his ear.

"Don't worry about dropping me off then, just go straight there." Draco told him and Harry thanked him gratefully as he waited for the phone call to connect.

" _Were your ears burning my boy, we were just talking about you."_ Sirius answered his phone.

"How fast can you get to Hermione's?" he asked ignoring his greeting all together.

" _Ten minutes why?"_

"She just called me, someone's broken into her flat and I'm at least thirty minutes away." he explained.

" _What!"_ Sirius exclaimed, and Harry could hear his father's voice in the background asking what was wrong. _"We're on our way now."_ he continued not bothering to say good bye before hanging up.

Just under thirty minutes later, Harry and Draco bounded up the stairs of the four story walk up. As they approached the open door of Hermione's flat they could hear her arguing with Sirius.

"I'm fine Papa, you're overreacting." she told him. "I wasn't even home."

"And what if you had been?" he replied just as they stepped through the door. Hermione, Sirius and Remus stood near the center of the living room talking while James was instructing a uniformed office on how he wanted everything done. Crookshanks was weaving between Sirius' legs meowing for attention from his second favorite human. The flat looked like a tornado had come through, the contents of all the shelves and drawers overturned; even the kitchen cabinets were upheaved.

Draco broke off heading toward a second uniformed officer while Harry approached Hermione. Remus was the first to notice him as he stopped beside the older man. He opened his mouth to ask Hermione how she was doing only to be cut off by a fierce glare.

"I can't believe you tattled on me to my fathers, Harry." she huffed. Remus felt sorry for the young man, his expression resembling a deer caught in the headlights as he replied.

"We were coming back from Azkaban. We were nearly thirty minutes away. I had to turn my lights on half way here to get through traffic." Harry explained. "I wasn't going to let you sit here alone all that time. Not when I didn't have the whole story at least."

"You see, Harry agrees with me." Sirius told her.

"That's not what he said, dad." Hermione exclaimed.

"Wait? What do I agree on?" Harry asked.

Remus sighed. "Sirius is trying to convince Hermione to stay with us a few days earlier than planned since she's already going to stay with us to prepare for the wedding."

"Which is unnecessary. The door wasn't even damaged and the chances of them coming back are slim. How is me staying here now any different than coming back here after the wedding."

"Hey, if I had my way little girl you never would have never left home." Sirius teased which did nothing to calm her temper. You'd think having raised the young woman he would know how volatile her temper was, she'd gotten it from him after all. Hermione looked to Remus exasperated and he stepped in.

"Okay, come on." he said pulling her away from the group and taking her aside. "Take a deep breath, sweetheart. Okay, just remember that Sirius is worried about you. After everything he's become particularly protective of everyone."

"I know that, it's just-"

"He's a little overbearing about it." Remus finished. Hermione nodded.

"I know, Honey, believe me, I know. I stepped out to get coffee at the cafe down the street one morning and I when I got back he gave me the fifth degree." Remus explained. "Just, maybe let him have this. Just this once. You can come back right after the wedding on Saturday." he wheedled. "Why don't you consider it a wedding gift to him?"

Hermione laughed at that. "Does that mean I should return the toaster oven?" Remus chuckled looping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug as they walked back to the group. Draco had joined the small group while they were gone and was current discussing something with Harry.

"Alright fine." she told Sirius. "I will stay with you, but only until the wedding." Sirius smiled gratefully at her, mouthing thank you to Remus over her shoulder as he pulled her into a hug.

"Was anything taken?" Draco asked when they pulled apart. Hermione shook her head.

"No, my jewelry is all accounted for and so are all the electronics. My office looks like it took the worst of it though."

"That's weird isn't it? To go to the trouble of breaking into a flat and not take anything. It sounds like they were looking for something specific." Draco replied.

"We were thinking the same thing." James added as he approached. "Do you have any idea what that might be?" he asked. Again Hermione shook her head.

"No." she replied. The conversation with Harry earlier came back to him then and he watched her suspiciously as she looked away, eyeing the mess around the apartment morosely. "I better go pack." she continued turning for the back bedroom.

"I'll give you a hand." Remus replied following after her. When they were gone James turned to Sirius and told him he'd called the CSI team in and they should be done before morning.

"Alright, we'll bring her back in the morning to clean up and change the locks then." Sirius replied.

A few minutes later Hermione and Remus returned all packed up and ready to go.

xXx

Originally they were going to have the wedding in the ball room of Malfoy Manor, but with the trend of unusually warm weather projected to continue, Sirius and Remus decided that the outdoor wedding they'd discussed as young men would work out just as they'd imagined. For the ceremony the back yard at Number 12 Grimmauld Place-where better to finally marry the man he loved than in the home of the homophobic woman who kicked him out at sixteen, he could only hope she was looking up at them and seething- was set up with a carpet clad aisle and rows of chairs on either side all facing a beautiful white archway where Remus and Sirius would take their vows to each other.

Sirius was in a dapper black suit and deep grey shirt, and Remus knew Sirius well enough not to ask him to wear his tie. Remus was dressed in a grey suit and white shirt, his grey tie matching his suit jacket and pants. James stood up with Sirius in a black suit and tie while Lily stood up with Remus in a flowing grey dress. The ceremony was simple and elegant. They wrote their own vows and despite teasing later, Sirius smiled proudly anytime someone brought up the fact that Remus' vows had made him cry. After being together for nearly forty-two years they were finally married with their closest friends and family looking on and sharing in their happiness.

Along the edges of the back yard they'd set up tents with tables and when the ceremony was finished they moved the chairs to the tables and set up a temporary dance floor in the middle. A tent with tables filled with dinner and dessert were in the far corner and strings of lights lit the back yard as the sun began to set. As soon as everything was set up the music began.

Draco found Hermione alone at a table off to the side, a half empty glass of wine in front of her. He took a seat one over from her. "That was a beautiful ceremony." Draco told, setting his own glass on the table with hers. Hermione smiled at him.

"It was wasn't it. It seems crazy to think they've been together since they were sixteen and their only just now getting married." she replied.

Draco hums his agreement and they fall silent, watching the couples on the dance floor. After a while Draco threw back the rest of his drink and turned to Hermione.

"So you know what I think?' he asked. Hermione looked over at him curiously.

"What's that?"

"I think you know exactly what the people who broke into your apartment were looking for." he continued.

"Is that so?" she asked. Draco nodded.

"You don't have to tell me anything." he told her and Hermione couldn't help but notice how uncomfortable he looked as he continued. "But, if you ever want to tell someone, I'll be here to listen."

Draco refused to look at her as he said this, his eyes tracking the couples on the dance floor again as the song changed to a slower tempo. Hermione smiled, watching him shift a bit, pulling at his tie as she stared at him. She chuckled drawing his attention.

"Come on." she said standing and reaching a hand out for him. "Dance with me."

Draco didn't argue, standing himself and offering her his arm before leading her out onto the dance floor. The beat had picked up a bit and they swayed to the music. "Do you remember the first time we danced?" she asked.

"The Potter's Christmas Party." he replied without hesitation. She looked surprised. "Our last year of school. I remember it, because that was the the same year I realized I let my father ruin my life." Hermione looked confused. "It was that summer, Lucius promised that, that would be the year he finally took me on the trip he'd been promising for my birthday for years. Every year there was an excuse, I wasn't old enough to enjoy it yet, he had a meeting, an impromptu business trip. But that was the year, no more excuses."

"What happened?" Hermione asked softly.

"I had my bags all packed, ready to go, all he had to do was say he was ready and we'd get in the car and drive to the airport. Well, he showed up, told me to leave my bags by the door and get in the car. The car took us to our families company's headquarters. Lucius explained that it was time I learned the ropes. Started taking the family legacy seriously." he looked away and took a deep breath. "I got out of the car without a word and walked away. I spent the summer with Blaise's family in Rome. I refused to take any of his calls or answer any of his messages." he huffed a humorless laugh. "The only thing I've ever wanted from him was what you had with Remus and Sirius, what Harry has with James. I realized that day that I was a coward. I'd tried so hard to make him happy to the point where I drove away someone who could have been a lifelong friend, someone I actually respected. I became a bully and an arsehole. And that day was the last straw. I wasn't ever going to make him happy, make him proud."

Hermione looked taken back. She wasn't even aware that Draco was capable of opening up that much to someone, much less her. Although it certainly all made sense now. Why they had really hit it off on the train ride to school and had worked together so well in class and then after the holiday break why he pretended none of that was real, that she was just someone to pass the time until he got bored with her. Why he became her bully, her tormentor. She'd always known he resented her achievements, that his father fueled those resentments but to hear him actually say it out loud was another matter altogether.

"Anyway." Draco said drawing her from her thoughts. "Such a happy occasion!" he joked startling a laugh out of her. "Way too heavy for a wedding I think."

"A bit." she chuckled. As the song ended a faster song started and they were interrupted by Sirius.

"May I cut in?" he asked and Draco bowed out chuckling as Sirius began swinging Hermione around the floor, making her laugh.

xXx

"Are you sure we can't convince you to stay?" Sirius asked and the look Hermione gave him was all the answer he needed. Despite having gone back to her flat and cleaned up as well as having the locks changed and a safety chain added to the door, Sirius was still nervous about her going home.

"Don't worry Papa, Draco's agreed to drop me off on his way home. So I won't be alone." she told him. Sirius sighed.

"Alright, but you'll be back in the morning right?"

She nodded. "To help you clean up, yes."

"Good." he replied pulling her into a hug and laying a kiss on her forehead. Remus did the same. Hermione pulled away smiling widely.

"What?" Remus asked.

Hermione shrugged. "I'm just so happy for you both." she told them.

"Yes well, it never would have happened if it weren't for all you've done." Remus replied. She shrugged again, clearly trying to brush it off. "Now, now, don't you pretend like it was nothing. Everything could have very well of backfired on you, you know. Kingsley may not have rehired you, you could have ruined your reputation."

"What did you expect me to do? Sit around and watch the two most important people in my life suffer?" she asked.

Sirius smiled. "Have we ever told you how proud we are of you?" he questioned.

"Only every chance you get."

Before they could reply Draco appeared with Hermione's coat and helped her put it on. "I'll see you tomorrow then." she said picking up one of her bags and heading for the door. Draco shook hands with both of them, congratulating them before picking up her other bag and following after her.

"You know," Sirius began when they were gone. "We may just get grandchildren yet."

Remus sighed. "Let's not think about that tonight shall we." he replied looping his arm over his husband's waist, leading him away.

"And what shall we think about then?" Sirius asked with a smirk.

"I think you know perfectly well what."

xXx

Draco told himself he was walking Hermione to the door simply to avoid the repercussions if Sirius found out he didn't. The truth was, however, that he was worried about her as well. After their little heart to heart on the dance floor he had taken to observing her through the rest of the night and he quite frankly he didn't like what he saw. He'd noticed right away that so long as there was someone with her, Sirius, Remus, Ginny, etc. she was fine, but the minute she was left alone it was obvious her mind began to wander and wherever it was wandering off to was clearly not a pleasant place.

Hermione had never been a drinker that much he was certain of but she'd managed to put away a few drinks more than he expected and he had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't due to the festivities.

Hermione unlocked the door and stepped into the flat, leaving it open for him and he took the invitation, setting her other bag down with the one she had been carrying and closing the door behind him. He watched from the living room as she crossed the expanse of the flat into the kitchen and immediately pulled out a bottle of whiskey. She poured herself a tumbler full and gestured to him to wordlessly ask if he wanted any. He nodded and she poured a second glass. He met her halfway, taking the drink as she handed it to him and took a sip while she took a generous gulp.

He looked concerned as he watched the day and evening bleed away taking all the happiness she'd experienced with it. Maybe it was being back in her apartment alone, or maybe she was just pretending to be so happy earlier-although he doubted that, no one loved Remus and Sirius the way their daughter did-but something drastic was changing right before his eyes.

"Whatever's been bothering you must be pretty back to make you look so… sad after all the fun you've had today." he told her and she huffed a laugh tossing back the last of her drink.

"What happened to not prying?" she asked. Draco smirked stepping up closer.

"I said you didn't have to tell me anything. I never said I wouldn't pry."

She snorted. "Fair enough, then let's make a deal. I'll tell you all about it if you'll tell me why all of a sudden you've completely cut Lucius out of your life. I mean I heard what you said this evening, sure, but he was still there. You were in pictures together for your mother's campaign, you at least pretended to get along. Now all of a sudden…" she made a poofing motion with her hand and looked at him expectantly.

He wasn't sure where it came from, okay that was a lie, he knew exactly where it came from. She had been steadily moving closer as she spoke, poking at the wound he'd opened on the dance floor, but he could see it in her eyes she felt guilty doing it. She was trying to get him to back down. Whatever had been eating away at her for months was clearly too painful to verbalize and in that moment he didn't care anymore.

He kissed her.

Just pulled her in and kissed her. He pulled away quickly, embarrassed by his boldness but she didn't let him go far, latching onto the lapel of his jacket and pulling him back in, taking the kiss he'd given her and deepening it. The glasses were dropped on the end table beside them and his arms came around her at the same time hers encircled his neck. They pulled apart for air and Draco hoisted her up against him, moving to perch her on the back of the sofa, before going to work at her neck, tugging at the collar of her black and grey dress. She moaned as he found the spot behind her ear that drove her crazy.

They migrated to the bedroom as they tore at clothes, dropping them along the way to the bed where they collapsed together in a tangle of limbs. This time they weren't in a hurry, two teenagers frantic for each other as they stumbled into a broom closet for privacy. They were older now, more experienced. They knew what they wanted, what they were doing and they weren't shy about taking it.

They came together, gasping each other's names before collapsing side by side, bodies cooling in the still air, the only sounds their own heavy breathing as they came down from their high.

xXx

They were sleeping, Hermione's head pillowed on Draco's chest as she lay curled against his side when his cell phone sounded. The machine buzzed incessantly against the end table where he'd placed it after getting up earlier between rounds.

Hermione groaned burying her face in his side as Draco sighed, annoyed. "Bloody hell." He grumbled reaching for the phone. "Malfoy." He answered groggily. There was a pause as he listened to whoever was on the other end and then; "What?!" He exclaimed. "Where are you now?" He sat up dislodging Hermione in the process and sitting on the edge of the bed. "Alright, I'm on my way." Was the last thing he said before hanging up.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked watching as he frantically dressed. He turned, facing her to find her leaning up on her arm watching him.

"Pansy's been in an accident. Her parents are out of the country so they called my parents. She's in the hospital, I have to go." He explained in a hurry, throwing on his shirt and buttoning it quickly.

"Yes, of course." She nodded as he leaned over the bed, kissed her quickly in goodbye and ran out.


	10. Altered Perspective

Conviction

Chapter 10: Altered Perspective

xXx

 _Draco didn't want to be there, among the strobing lights and pulsing music. He wanted to go home, kick off his shoes and drown his feelings in a bottle of bourbon. But he'd just won a case that very afternoon and his client insisted they celebrate. Draco had hoped that dinner would be enough but by the end of the meal the client was riding high on rich food and the constant reminder that he would not be spending time in prison for vehicular manslaughter. So he insisted they go to a club._

 _Draco rolled his eyes, watching his client across the VIP section, downing shot after shot with sorority girls. One would think, having been involved in a car accident that cost the life of another human being and then being put on trial for manslaughter-although Draco was of the mind it should have been murder, because despite Draco's excellent spin on events presented to the jury, his client had in fact been intoxicated- would somehow convince said man that he should take it easy on the alcohol. The tenth shot said otherwise, and not for the first time Draco was regretting taking this case._

 _The accused was the son of a friend of his father's. Lucius asked him to take the case, stating that one mistake shouldn't ruin the rest of his life. Draco couldn't help but notice Lucius wasn't concerned with the fact that someone else had lost their life that night that maybe spending a little time in prison would do the drunken socialite some good, that he was probably too rich to have his life ruined by a few years in prison, anyway._

 _Draco had been sipping from the same drink for nearly an hour when his client returned to tell him he'd run into some old college friends and was heading out to celebrate with them. Draco knew it wasn't the best idea but he hoped the large group would keep him out of trouble and so he waved him off and got ready to head home himself._

 _He was on his way out when he noticed the familiar face in another section of the VIP area. Pansy Parkinson was sitting by herself, hands in her lap and trying to remain unnoticed. She had no drink and her eyes were shifting around the room like she was looking for someone. Draco wasn't sure when he'd made up his mind to go talk to her, but the urge to do so was overwhelming. Maybe it was the look on her face, like she didn't want to be there either or the fact that the girl he'd grown up with, always up for a good time of any variety, was clearly uncomfortable in a setting that used to empower her._

" _Pansy?" he called out loud enough for her to hear him over the music. She jumped, startled and turned to look up at him, a smile parting her lips that didn't quite reach her eyes._

" _Draco, hi, how are you?" she greeted in return; she didn't stand to hug him as she normally would have, but he brushed it off._

" _What are you doing up here all alone?" he asked. "Is Greg here?" he didn't miss the way she tensed at her husband's name._

" _No, he's away on business with his father." she replied. "I'm here with Daphne and Astoria."_

 _Draco nodded his eyes immediately going to scan the dance floor where he found the Greengrass sisters dancing. He turned back to Pansy. He couldn't help but notice how small she looked. She'd always been thin, but looking at her now she seemed almost ill. Concern welled up in him._

" _Why aren't you out there with them?" he asked receiving a shrug in reply._

" _I wasn't really feeling well today but the girls wanted me to come out with them, we haven't seen each other in a while and they insisted." she explained. Draco nodded his understanding and Pansy looked away, staring down at her hands and tugging at the hem of her dress. Despite it being the dead of summer she was wearing long sleeves and a high collar. She also looked a little too pale to be healthy._

 _A nagging voice in the back of his mind told him he knew exactly why. "Pansy?" he said gently, despite how long he needed to be to be heard. She looked up at him. "Do you want to go home?" she thought about it before nodding. "I'll take you home." he told her, helping her up and offering her his arm. He snuck her out the back after she told the girls she was leaving and helped her into his car._

 _They were silent as Draco drove and sometime later they pulled up to the gate at the end of her driveway. He turned to her waiting for her to turn over the key for the security box but she didn't move. Her breathing was uneven now as she stared up the long driveway at the sprawling mansion. Draco had been there a time or two after Pansy and Greg had been married. It was exactly like the house Pansy had dreamed of living in with her husband as a little girl. But now, the house that had once been her dream elicited fear in her._

 _Draco watched her for a few more minutes, before throwing the car in reverse and driving away from the house. "Where are you going?" Pansy asked confused, snapping out her daze._

" _Somewhere that isn't clearly scaring you." he replied. Pansy huffed a laugh._

" _Why would I be scared of my own home?" she questioned trying to laugh but it just wasn't working. Draco shot her a look that told her as much. She said nothing else, simply facing forward watching the road. That alone, devoid of everything else would have been enough to convince Draco that something was off. The Pansy he had grown up with would be kicking and screaming by now, especially if he was doing something she didn't like, in fact, whether or not he was doing something she didn't like, she would still be complaining._

 _He pulled up outside his flat and sat there, turning to look at her. "Is this your…"_

" _Yes." he replied. "You're safe here." he told her softly._

" _Am I that obvious?" she asked._

" _Well, it's either that or you're so unhappy you actually dread going home. Something tells me you'd be happy to go home to an empty house if you were bored with your marriage."_

" _I wish I was only bored." she whispered staring down at her hands. Draco reached over slowly, taking her hands and squeezing reassuringly._

" _Come on," he urged gently. "Let's go up, you can stay as long as you want to." she nodded and Draco got out the car, walking around and opening the door for her and helping her out. He wrapped his arm around her leading her into the building._

" _He wasn't like this before. He was… really sweet actually. I mean he was almost bumbling you know?" Pansy said sometime later. She took a shaky breath staring down at the tea in the small white mug Draco had handed her._

" _I don't really know when it started. At first it was little things. He would get mad and yell and I would yell back and we'd storm off separately and cool off. But then… one day… one day he swung at me. He knocked me off my feet. I could see it in his eyes he was just as shocked as I was but I wasn't going to let him get away with it so, I got up and I went to my parents' house. My father was angry, but my mother was surprisingly calm. When he came to talk to me the next day he apologized, said it would never happen again, it was a onetime thing, he didn't even know where it had come from. My father was against it but ultimately I went back. I know it was stupid, but I wasn't ready to throw away my marriage, you know?"_

 _Draco nodded. "There's nothing wrong with wanting something for yourself, no matter what that is."_

 _Pansy took a deep breath. "I didn't even notice he was isolating me." she told him. "It started with him saying he didn't like this person or he thought that person was using me. I wanted to make him happy, and it's not like he sounded like he was trying to control me, he actually sounded worried about you. So I listened to him. It wasn't until he started trying to convince me that I should stay home instead of going to functions and parties that I started to push back. And then he wasn't concerned anymore; instead he was angry. He got so angry he scared me. He started throwing fists and I tried to leave again but he stopped me. He said he would kill me if I left him. He told me there was no where I could hide from him."_

 _She was shaking now and Draco moved to her side, sitting next to her and wrapping his arm around her. He took the tea from her trembling hands and set it aside._

" _I don't want to talk about it anymore." she suddenly said, voice teary, shaking her head._

" _It's alright, you don't have to talk about it anymore." he consoled her._

 _At some point that night she begged him to make her forget, to take away all the bad memories, the pain both physical and mental. To make her feel something other than fear. He couldn't turn her away._

 _He tried to convince her to leave him. He promised he would do everything in his power to protect her, keep her away from him. She shushed him and fell asleep in his arms._

 _In the morning, she was gone._

xXx

St. Mungo's was a teaching hospital just outside the city. His mother had donated millions to the hospital over the years in the hopes of furthering research into medicines, and diseases. As a young man he had been forced to dawn suit and tie and mingle with Hospital executives to promote the hospital and all it had and would accomplish.

Now Draco was running through hallways, dodging nurses with carts and patients who couldn't sleep. His mother's influences had secured Pansy a private room at the far end of the trauma floor. He could see his father standing outside the room, dressed impeccably for three a.m. Lucius looked up at him as he approached but Draco ignored him as Narcissa exited the room.

"What happened?" he asked, stopping before her. He could see over her shoulder, Pansy lying in the hospital bed unconscious. Her face was badly bruised, one arm in a cast, and he could clearly see the outline of brace around her knee.

"Astoria went over to check on her when she didn't answer any of her calls all day. She found Pansy lying at the bottom of the stairs. The doctors say her injuries are consistent with an assault." Narcissa explained. Anger welled up in his chest as he pushed passed her into the room. He moved to the side of the bed, looking her over as his parents followed him in. Narcissa continued; "The police were here, they documented her injuries and talked to Astoria, but they can't do anything else until she wakes up and tells them what happened. Astoria thinks the house was burglarized, it didn't look like it had been broken into but the inside was a mess."

Draco scoffed. "A stranger didn't so this." he muttered. "Where's Goyle?"

"No one knows. We've been trying to get ahold of him since Astoria called. Why?" Narcissa asked.

"He did this." Draco ground out through clenched teeth, his body tense.

"What?" Narcissa questioned confused. Lucius looked livid.

"How dare you make such baseless accusations?" Lucius ground out angrily. Greg's father had been a friend of Lucius since Boarding School. The same school Draco, Greg, and Pansy had attended together. "Gregory Goyle is a good man, how dare you accuse him of such a heinous crime." he continued harshly.

Draco snapped. "What would you know? You'd actually have to bother to look to know what was happening. God, you could fill a library with the shit you don't know; don't bother to know to suit your narrow minded world view." he exclaimed taking a step toward the older man. Narcissa reacted putting herself between her husband and son.

"Okay, enough." she said pushing Draco back gently until he put some space between them. "Why do you think Greg did this?" she asked.

Draco took a deep breath and collapsed into a chair beside the bed. "Because he's done it before." he sighed. "That night we ran into each other at the club downtown, I noticed she was… different. Closed off, nervous. I could tell she didn't want to be there so I took her home, except when we got there; she was too scared to get out of the car so I took her back to my flat. She told me everything. I tried to convince her to leave him, told her we could protect her but she was too convinced he would find her, kill her. I haven't seen her since."

Lucius shook his head. He didn't quite believe it but he was willing to wait to hear what happened from Pansy before he jumped to conclusions. They sat at her bedside for what felt like hours before Pansy woke with a start. Her eyes were wild as they flew open the heart monitor spiking as panic overtook her sense.

"Pansy." Narcissa called out to her, standing over her so she could clearly see her. "Sweetheart, it's okay, you're safe. Pansy?"

Pansy's breathing slowed as she locked eyes with Narcissa and continued to do so until she was breathing normally. "It's alright, you're safe here."

"Where am I?" she asked, still a little jittery. Her eyes shifted around the room from one Malfoy to the next.

"You're in the hospital." Draco told her softly, taking her hand gently. She looked to him, tears filling her eyes. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Pansy took a deep shaky breath, wincing at the pull in her ribs. "I did it, I finally did it." her voice hoarse.

"Did what, sweetheart?" Narcissa asked.

"I asked Greg for a divorce." she explained. "He was so angry, but I just snapped I couldn't take it anymore." she continued. Her heart rate was speeding up again as she kept talking. "Where is he?" she finally asked. Having to tell her that her husband, the man who put her in the hospital was unaccounted for had the exact results one would expect and Lucius rushed out of the room, returning with a doctor who gave her a sedative.

Lucius was understandably angry, though Draco didn't know if had more to do with a young woman he watched grow up being mercilessly beaten by her own husband, or because he was wrong about said husband.

"Where are you going?" Narcissa asked as she watched her husband pull out his cell phone as he made his way toward the door.

"I'm calling the security team. She'll have a guard at all times." he replied shortly before stepping out.

It all seems to happen slowly after that. Lucius returned shortly before the doctor did with the results of x-rays and tests performed. He explained in simple terms that they needed to keep an eye on her, what with the mild concussion and the broken arm and the sprained knee, but when she woke she could go home. With her parents out of the country, and on their way back according to Narcissa, Pansy would be staying at Malfoy Manor where Greg couldn't get to her.

Draco's only concern was keeping Pansy safe. And he knew exactly what he had to do to accomplish that.

xXx

Remus opened the door to number 12 Grimmauld Place that afternoon in response to frantic knocking. He found Draco on the other side looking slightly disheveled and exhausted. "Is Hermione still here?" he asked and Remus stepped aside to let him pass.

"She's in the sitting room." Remus told him. Draco didn't wait before taking off for the room down the hall. As he entered he pinpointed Hermione among the group of Harry, Ginny, Sirius, Ron and Regulus eating lunch. When she noticed him she set her plate aside, and stood to greet him.

"Hey, how's Pansy?" she asked walking across the room to meet him.

He cleared his throat. "Not great." he replied.

"What happened to Pansy?" Regulus asked concerned. Draco took a deep breath.

"Astoria Greengrass couldn't get ahold of her all day yesterday so she went over to check on her, found her lying at the bottom of the stairs badly beaten." Draco explained much to everyone's shock.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"She finally worked up the nerve to ask Greg for a divorce." he told her. "Which brings me to why I'm here. I need those photos."

"Photos?" they heard Ron ask but he went ignored.

"If Greg finds out, well I don't want to think about what he'll do." Draco explained. Hermione nodded.

"Of course, what did you do with the ones I gave you?" she asked dutifully ignoring the fact that all eyes were on them.

"I destroyed them of course. What else would I have done with them?" he replied.

"Okay, well those were the only copies."

Draco stared down at her dumbfounded. "What!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me that after all this time I thought you were blackmailing me and you had nothing?"

"Your blackmailing him?" Ron spoke up again, sounding all too gleeful. Hermione turned on her heels to glare at her ex.

"Shut up Ronald." she told him before turning back to Draco and pushing up out the door. They could hear Ron's voice as they made their way out.

"I knew it was weird that he would take that job."

Hermione took Draco up to the library and as soon as the door was closed he turned on her. "How could you do this to me?" he asked outraged. "How could you make me think I didn't have a choice? You basically tricked me into taking a job I didn't want and now you're telling me that the only reason I even took the job doesn't exists anymore?" he raged.

"Are you finished?" she asked watching him breathe deeply. He nodded. "I think it shows a lot about how little you know me that you actually thought I would release those photos." she replied.

"And that makes it okay?"

"No, but I knew you would never have taken the job if I didn't have something on you. I wasn't going to offer you the job originally. I wanted Blaise to run the team. He's earned it tenfold but he didn't want to take the risk that it could ruin his career so he turned it down. Which left me completely up a creek." she explained. "Your mother was over for coffee one afternoon that I came to visit Uncle Regulus and we got to talking. I mentioned having trouble finding someone I trusted to run my new task force. A few weeks later I get a call from her about the photographs."

Draco looks at her angrily. "You said my mother's campaign manager gave you those photos."

"He did, but Narcissa is the one who had the idea."

"Why?" he asked confused shaking his head.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask her. She clearly had her own reasons and I didn't ask."

Draco was still angry, but the anger was slowly fading into exhaustion. Hermione watched sympathetically as he took a seat, resting his head in his hands. She sighed. "Have you gotten any sleep?" she asked, moving to sit beside him.

Draco huffed. "No, I was kept up all night by a insatiable woman." he replied. She smiled softly. She took a deep breath after a moment.

"What's the plan with Pansy?" she questioned. Draco shrugged.

"I have no idea. She still wants a divorce, thank god, but no one can find Greg and she's terrified he's going to come back for her. She won't talk to police either. They make her nervous. She doesn't know them, so she doesn't trust them." he explained.

"What about sending an officer she knows?" she suggested. "Ron has special training dealing with victims of abuse."

Draco nodded. "I'll take your word for it. Can you send him over tomorrow?" he asked, standing.

"Of course." she replied, standing as well.

"I should get back." he told her heading for the door, Hermione not far behind. He stopped, however, when he got to the door. "You know, when this is over." he began turning to face her. "Or when things calm down at least, we should talk about last night."

"I agree." she replied reaching up on her toes to peck him on the cheek. "You just worry about Pansy right though."

xXx

Narcissa Malfoy was in the study when he got back to the manor later that afternoon. Draco took a seat across from her in the small sitting area. She didn't greet him as he sat and he knew she can sense his mood.

"I went to see Hermione." he told her. "To convince her to destroy the photos."

"And did she agree?" she asked calmly, never looking up from the book in her lap.

"She never had them." he explained. That seemed to get her attention. She finally looked up at him surprised. "Apparently she gave me the only copies when she "offered" me the job. She only wanted me to think she had something on me."

"Hermione's tactical brilliance never ceases to amaze me." she muttered to herself.

"Why did you let her do it? Why did you give her the idea?" he finally asked.

Narcissa was quiet for a moment and Draco, as usual couldn't read her. His mother has always had an incredible poker face, cultivate from years of a living within a strict family. She took a deep breath and looked up at him again. "I knew that you would never take the job otherwise." she explained calmly. "You asked me why before, when you thought my CM had given her the idea, and I told you that you deserved it. Do you remember that?" she asked. He nodded. "I meant that you deserved the chance to make a name for yourself away from your father. You know you've always been my angel Draco and I wish that I had done more to protect you from the disappointment your father became for you. I know what happened between you recently to turn what little relationship you had left sour, and I had hoped that this new job, this opportunity might have healed the damage he inflicted on your self-confidence.

I'm tired of watching you sequester yourself from everyone who cares about you and everything you love. You bury yourself in work in the hopes that the same thing won't happen again. I want you to be happy again. To be the happy, confident, charming boy you used to be without having to force it."

Draco didn't know what to say to that. He knew he'd been a little reclusive in the last year be he didn't think it really bothered anyone. Clearly he was wrong.

He wasn't sure what to say so he merely nodded and muttered something about checking on Pansy.

xXx

Draco met Ron in the hall the next afternoon, shaking his hand as he entered. "Thanks for coming." he said, leading the red head through the house.

"It's no problem. How is she doing?" Ron replied.

"She's not eating very much and she sleeps most of the day." Draco explained clearly bothered by this.

Ron nodded. "Unfortunately that's normal." he told him. "Here," he said handing over a business card. "My sister-in-law, Dr. Fleur Delacour-Weasley. She's a psychologist who specializes in helping victims of abuse both mental and physical. She's the best at what she does."

"Thank you." Draco replied as they came to a stop outside of one of the guest rooms. Draco stuck the card into his pocket before knocking lightly on the door. There was the softest of voices on the other side and Draco pushed the door open peeking in and spotting her in a chair by the window before pushing the door all the way open and stepping in, Ron behind him.

"Pansy?" he called out softly and she turned her head to look at him. "This is inspector Weasley. You remember Ron from school?" she nodded, shaking his hand when he offered it.

"May I?" Ron asked gesturing to the seat across from her. She nodded again. As Ron sat, Draco asked;

"Do you want me to say, Pansy?"

Pansy seemed at a loss and she turned to look at Ron questioningly.

"It's up to you. If it would make you feel more comfortable to have him here than he's more than welcome." Ron explained. She hesitated before shaking her head sending Draco on his way with a nod.

When Draco is gone Pansy took a deep breath and turned her attention back to Ron. "Not exactly how I thought I'd meet an old classmate again. So what do you need to know?"

"Why don't you start from the beginning." he said, voice soft and Pansy couldn't seem to reconcile the man before her with the boy she knew in school. "Take your time," he continued.

She took a moment to collect her thoughts. "He was in his office. He was working and I came in and I just blurted it out. I told him I wanted a divorce. He was really quiet and I didn't think he heard me at first but then he got up abruptly and I knew I was in trouble. I ran. I made it to the stairs before he caught me. He dragged me across the floor…" she stopped wiping gently at her bruised eye. "I tried to get away. He hit me and I stopped struggling. He dropped me on the floor and he just kept hitting me and kicking me. He was going to kill me." she choked back a sob and Ron put his pen down, moving to the edge of his seat and laying a hand on her shoulder for comfort. "He finally stopped but then he picked me up and dragged me back toward the stairs. I remember feeling my stomach drop as I fell and then I was in the hospital."

Ron nodded taking notes as she spoke. He asked a few questions which she answered as best she could. When he was finished he handed her his business card. "My office number is on the front, my mobile on the back. If you need anything, if you have questions or you just want to talk, call me. Anytime, day or night. Okay?" She nodded. "I promise you we're going to do everything we can to find him and protect you. Everything's going to be alright."

"Thank you."

xXx

The following Monday seemed off to everyone. Draco found himself at Hermione's door early, knocking on the frame before stepping in and closing the door behind him. He passed over a new case file as he took a seat across from her. "Morning." Hermione greeted, clearly surprised to see him. It wouldn't surprise him if she had expected a letter of resignation this morning and not a new case. "How's Pansy?" she asked.

"She seems to be doing better." Draco replied. "She's eating more and sleeping normally. A few nightmares here and there. Her parents finally made it home but she's opted to stay at the manor. I don't know what Ron told her but it's certainly seemed to help."

Hermione nodded her understanding. "Yeah, Ron can be an asshole sometimes but when it comes to doing his job he doesn't slack off."

Silence descends on them until Draco broke the tension as awkwardly as one would expect the socially inept. "So, the team chose a new case. We're gonna get started on it as soon as possible." he told her.

"Okay, just remember the hearing for your last case is in three days. I need the whole team there."

"No problem." he told her getting up and turning for the door. He stopped just shy opening it and turned to face her again. "You know we still need to talk." he began. "So, if you pick a time and place I'll make the time."

Hermione nodded. "I'll let you know."


	11. Hostage Part I

Conviction

Chapter 11: Hostage Part I

xXx

It was late, later than either of them should have been up given everything that had taken place recently. Hermione watched as Draco slipped his shirt back on where he was sitting on the edge of her bed. She was sitting propped up against the headboard memorizing the way he moved. It took her a moment to realize his shoulders were shaking and another moment to realize it was because he was laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Draco turned to face her, still perched on the edge of the bed. His shirt was unbuttoned and he had yet to slip his pants back on.

"This certainly didn't work out as planned. Did it?"

xXx

48 Hours Earlier

It was a beautiful spring morning and Draco took a deep breath as he stepped out into the garden behind Malfoy Manor. He spotted Pansy on the stone patio, sitting at the small table with breakfast laid out in front of her. He walked up, taking a seat across from her. She smiled at him softly.

"Good morning." he greeted her, pouring himself a cup of coffee and swiping a piece of bacon off her plate. She swatted at his hand halfheartedly and he chuckled. "So, mother tells me you've opted to stay here at the manor instead of going home with your parents."

Pansy shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not sure if I can trust my mother." she explained. "I know my father would protect me, keep Greg away from me, but I'm not so sure my mother wouldn't try to convince me to forgive him."

"Well, no matter what happens we'll all be here for you." he reassured her.

"Thank you, Draco. For everything." Draco smiled at her. "So," she began desperate for a happier conversation. "What do you have planned for the day?"

"I have to be in court for a hearing this morning." he replied checking his watch. "A hearing I'll be late for if I don't get going." he told her standing up. "I should be back in the office after lunch if you need me." he continued leaning over to lay a kiss on her cheek before leaving.

xXx

Blaise chuckled as Draco approached, putting the contents of his pockets back as he approached his team outside the courtroom. "I swear security's getting worse." he complained.

"That's a good thing. It means they're doing their job." Harry replied. Draco conceded the point as they pushed through the doors into the courtroom.

"That can't be all." Blaise said as they made their way in.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked.

"Why you're almost late. Security takes a while but not that long." he continued.

"Oh yeah, I got held up at the Manor and then got stuck in traffic." Draco explained.

"Staying at the manor? Bit old to be living at home aren't you." Blaise teased. Draco rolled his eyes.

"It's just until I know Pansy will be alright." he said. "I don't think I'll have to worry about her much longer though."

"Why's that?" Luna asked.

"She's doing better. Better than you'd expect. Ever since she talked to Weasley."

They spotted Hermione at the front of the room talking with the defense attorney. The defendant was sitting at the table, turning to face her four family members, her parents and teenage children, behind her. The team made their way to the front, taking a seat in the row behind the Prosecutor's table.

Not long after, the bailiff, who'd been talking to the stenographer, stood to height and moved to the side of the Judge's bench, announcing her to the room and driving everyone to their feet.

"Be seated." the judge said as she took her own seat. "This hearing is to determine the validity of the conviction of Elaine Lassiter in the murder of her husband, Marcus Lassiter. Miss Granger, what is the Prosecution's stance?"

Hermione stood. "Your honor, due to further investigation we at the prosecutor's office feel it is only right to vacate the prosecution's stance on Mrs. Lassiter's conviction."

"Very well Miss Granger, I will take that into consideration as you present the new evidence." she replied. She turned to the defense but before she could say anything a commotion started in the hall. All eyes turned to the double doors at the far end of the courtroom. Muffled screams rang out, someone yelling orders to stop, and before anyone could react the doors burst open to reveal Greg Goyle pushing a young woman in front of him, a gun in hand. He pushed the doors closed quickly, sliding a metal horseshoe shape around the knobs.

Goyle was finished and back to pointing his gun at the young woman before Harry or the Bailiff could react and draw their weapons. "Don't even think about it Potter." he called pressing the muzzle to the woman's temple. He inched forward a bit. "You." he said pointing to one of the witnesses. "Take their guns, bring them here." when the older woman hesitated he screamed; "Now!"

She jumped rushing to each of them and with shaking hands laid the guns at his feet. He gestured for her to go back to Harry. "Take his handcuffs. Cuff him to the table." he ordered and she looked to Harry wide eyed. He nodded at her slightly non verbally telling her it was okay. "Everyone else over there." Greg continued gesturing to the opposite side of the room. As the woman secured Harry to the table, the group slowly moved across the room, making no sudden movements. "Not you two. Malfoy, Granger." Greg called out stopping them. They turned to look at him and followed his gestures back to where Harry was standing hunched over, one of his hands secured to a metal bar under the table.

When everyone was situated he let the young woman he'd brought in with him go, pushing her toward the group on the far side. He found Draco, putting himself between Greg and Hermione.

"Typical." Greg scoffed. They both look confused and Hermione shoots Harry a look earning a shrug. "Everything's all about Draco. The perfect son." Greg continued. "Everything revolves around Draco and what he wants. Everyone else be damned."

"What do you want Greg?" Draco asked which seemed to only enrage Greg. He'd been about as level headed as a hostage taker could be, but now, standing toe to toe with Draco he seemed completely unhinged.

"What do I want?" Greg seethed. "I want what's mine!" he exclaimed. "I want my wife and I know you're keeping her from me! Where is she?"

"Somewhere you can't hurt her anymore." Hermione replied glaring fiercely at her former classmate.

He brought his attention on her and pointed the gun at her but she refused to flinch even as Draco tried to pull her behind him. "Oh are you two best friends now?" Greg asked sarcastically. "Because if I remember correctly you hated each other in school."

Before anyone can reply a knock sounded at the doors across the courtroom.

xXx

Response time had been incredible when one stopped to think about it. But with the son of the Commissioner, an entire law enforcement task force and the Director of Public Prosecutions, all being held hostage by a lone gunman it was to be expected.

Remus and Sirius had been at home, packing for their honeymoon when a Police Constable appeared at their door, informing them that their daughter, nephew, their team and several other people had been taken hostage in one of the courtrooms downtown. They'd wasted no time, dropping everything and rushing to the scene where they pulled up on a blockade, keeping onlookers back and gatherings of police around the building. At the front of the building where the largest gathering of officers was, sat a mobile command unit RV. They were ushered passed the police line and into the RV where they were greeted by James.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sirius asked urgently, ignoring the hum of activity around them. James took a deep breath.

"An unidentified gunman entered the courthouse and made it through the security checkpoint. He attacked a guard near the back of the entrance hall and took a clerk hostage, used her as a human shield and took her into the courtroom where Hermione and her Task Force were holding a hearing." James explained. He gestured to the man standing in tactical gear behind a woman, also in tactical gear sitting at a bank of computers against the wall. She was typing away furiously, the screens blinking through CCTV footage. "You remember Superintendent Alastor Moody." James said, pointing out the standing man. "And of course Chief Inspector Tonks." the woman waved over her shoulder, focused on her work.

"Cousin." she mumbled in greeting.

"Dora's working on getting the CCTV feed from inside the courthouse; in the meantime they're trying to identify the gunman." James explained.

"The system is in the process of updating, so the images are a little grainy." Tonks explained. "I've got them running through a cleaning algorithm."

"We only have an estimated hostage count. The Judge, the bailiff, the stenographer, a defense attorney, the defendant, the hostage he took in there with him, Hermione and CIU which makes twelve so far. We don't know how many more were already in there for the hearing." Moody explained. "As soon as we get the feed we can assess the situation and decide what to do from there, but protocol states we open a line of communication."

"I got it." Tonks interrupted bringing up the feed on the largest screen.

"That's Gregory Goyle Jr." James said watching the familiar young man heard everyone into a corner. To the side he could see Harry, handcuffed to the underside of the Prosecutor's table. On either side of him he felt his best friends tense, watching in horror as Greg singled out Hermione and Draco, moving them over to stand with Harry.

"I count sixteen total sirs." Tonks said. "An older male and female and two teenagers."

"The defendant's family most likely." Remus muttered absently.

Moody turned to an officer off to the side. "Get a tac phone in there, now." he ordered before turning back to the screen.

"There's no audio?" Sirius asked his eyes never leaving the screen. Greg was yelling at Draco now.

"No, there are no microphones in any of the courtrooms. Too much of a risk someone will hack them." Tonks explained.

There was a bit more and then Hermione spoke up and a little voice in the back of Sirius' mind told him he owed Draco for putting himself between that gun and their daughter.

Then all at once, everyone in the courtroom turned to look at the door.

xXx

"I have a phone." A voice called through the door. "There are people who would like to speak with you." it continued.

"You must think I'm stupid!" Greg called back, lowering the gun as he turned to face the back of the courtroom.

"I'm setting the phone outside the door and walking away." the voice responded. There was an audible thunk as something hard touched the ground. Now that everyone was quiet they could hear heavy boots walking further away.

"If you don't pick up the phone to talk to the police, they'll have no choice but to make entry. Nine out of ten times the hostage taker dies." Harry explained.

"Shut up." Greg replied absently staring off at the door.

"This is your chance to make demands, tell them what you want." Harry continued unheeded.

Greg snapped his head around glaring at Harry and lifting his gun to point it at him. "My only demand is that you shut the fuck up!" Harry didn't flinch but he could just see Draco in the corner of his eye, holding Hermione back.

Greg hesitated before turning to the group and pointing at Luna.

"You, up." he ordered. Despite having a gun pointed at her, Luna was calm and cool, although Hermione hadn't expected any differently of her. Draco on the other hand was a bit surprised. Luna had always been nonchalant, breezy in her own way, but a man was literally pointing a gun at her, how could she remain so calm?

"You two, sit against the wall." Greg ordered Hermione and Draco and they did, sliding to the floor just behind Harry.

Greg followed Luna to the door, standing back off to the side. He lifted the horseshoe lock up so she could push the door open and watched her like a hawk as she peeked out and grabbed the divers box stamped with the Tactical Response Logo. She had just enough time to glance around the hall, spotting a tactical team ready for insertion at a moment's notices, before backing into the room, phone in hand.

With Luna back in the room he replaced the make shift lock and took the phone, ushering her back to the group. No sooner did she reclaim her seat than did the phone ring, muffled inside the case. Greg set it down on the table and opened it up, picking up the receiver. "Well you got your line. Now what do you want?" Greg demanded into the mouth piece.

"It's not about what I want. It's about what you want Mr. Goyle." the voice on the other end spoke calmly and clearly. "My name is Inspector Terry Boot, and I want to help you and those people you have in there with you get home safe tonight. Now, what do I need to do to make that happen?" he asked.

"Well, Terry, that's quite simple. My wife. Here. One hour." and with that Greg hung up.

xXx

"Do you know anything about the wife sir?" Boot asked when the line went dead. He turned to James, Remus and Sirius as he posed the question.

"Pansy Goyle nee Parkinson." James began. "She just got out of the hospital this past weekend. She'd asked him for a divorce and in response he beat her and threw her down the stairs."

"And he wonders why she asked for a divorce." Sirius muttered.

"Well, we obviously can't let her anywhere near him, but maybe she'll talk to him over the phone." Boot suggested. Moody agreed.

"When Goyle disappeared after the attack she went to stay with the Malfoys. I've already spoken with Narcissa about all of this, she's agreed to stay put at the Manor. They should still be there." James explained.

"We should probably have Pansy on scene." Tonks spoke up. "If he won't accept a phone call, we may be able to open up a visual line."

"Agreed." James said. "I'll go get her myself." he continued. "Keep me updated." he ordered Moody, before turning on his heels and leaving mobile command. His body guards met him outside and escorted him toward the waiting SUV. James stopped short however, when he noticed a familiar head of red hair in the crowd of officers.

"Ron!" he called out, drawing the young Inspector's attention. His son's best friend pushed his way through the crowd meeting him just outside the police line.

"Yes Sir? Any news?" Ron asked short of breath.

"I'll explain on the way, I need you to accompany me to Malfoy Manor." James told him and Ron didn't question it.

xXx

Narcissa was desperate for news as she ushered them into the house. "What's going on? Have you heard anything more?" she asked.

"We've identified the gunman." James began. "Is Gregory Goyle Jr." there was hitch in her breath but she said nothing as James continued. "He's making demands now."

"And what does he want?" she asked although she was certain she already knew the answer.

"His only demand is that we bring Pansy to him. He hasn't said what he'll do if we don't, but to be quite honest I don't want to wait to find out."

"There has to be another way." Narcissa insisted. "You can't bring Pansy anywhere near that monster."

"I'm sorry, Cissa, he's got sixteen hostages including our children." James replied. Narcissa shook her head, looking off at the staircase and catching sight of Pansy as she descended.

"He's right." she said softly, drawing James and Ron's attention. She stepped off the last riser and stopped beside Ron. "I don't want to go anywhere near him, but he has all those people. He needs to be stopped."

She was practically shaking; they could all see it, but equally so they could see the resolve in her eyes. She wasn't going to let anyone down.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked. She nodded.


	12. Hostage Part II

Conviction

Chapter 12: Hostage Part II

A/N: And I'm back! I can't promise updates will be weekly but I will do my best to post regularly. I know exactly how this story is going to go it's just a matter of writing it down.

xXx

 _Lucius Malfoy would never be father of the year. He was fully aware of his shortcomings as he was taught to be. Finding his twenty seven year old son downing a tumbler of thirty year old scotch, his face red, eyes hard; his ears were practically smoking, would only come to prove this fact. He was pacing Lucius' study, his posture screaming danger to anyone considering approaching him. Lucius sighed, his son was, if nothing else, dramatic at the best of times._

 _"_ _What's the matter Draco?" Lucius asked, approaching the bar cart, as Draco poured himself another drink._

 _"_ _As if you don't know." Draco spat trying to take a drink. Lucius pulled the glass from his hand, keeping it out of reach when he tried to grab for it._

 _"_ _Stop acting like a child and tell me what happened."_

 _Draco huffed, shaking his head and putting some distance between them. He was pacing again, agitated._

 _"_ _Draco!" Lucius exclaimed stopping the younger man in his tracks. He turned on his father, shoulders set._

 _"_ _You want to know what happened?" he asked. "I'll tell you what happened!" he continued. "The man you asked me to represent, the man I got off on Manslaughter charges, killed someone else last night!"_

 _Lucius looked surprised for only a moment before schooling his features. "What happened?"_

 _"_ _After leaving the club with his friends, he got into a fight with a pedestrian on the street; he beat the man to death. According to witnesses, afterward he told one of his friends he was already acquitted of one murder he'd get out of this too. That's two bodies now, one more and he can be classified a serial killer!"_

 _"_ _Quit being so dramatic!" Lucius exclaimed._

 _"_ _Fuck you!" Draco raged. "This is on you! Once again, Lucius Malfoy proves that nothing matters more to him than his business. Not his wife, not his own son."_

 _"_ _I did not make you defend him." Lucius replied._

 _"_ _No, you're right, you didn't. I just foolishly believed that I was performing my duty as your son. That was my mistake. One would think I'd've learned my lesson years ago, right? Not to trust my own father to do right by me, or hell, to do the right thing at all for that matter." Draco huffed, running a hand through his hair. "I assure you, I will not make that mistake of believing you could ever be anything other than a colossal disappointment ever again."_

 _"_ _How dare you speak to me that way!" Lucius snapped._

 _"_ _Piss off, Lucius." Draco snapped right back, storming past him, leaving Lucius stunned and alone._

xXx

The SUV was mostly silent, save for the sound of the wind dragging against the car as it moved down the highway. Two officers sat in the front, one driving, the other keeping his eyes open. In the middle James sat against one side and Narcissa the other, and in the far back, Ron and Pansy. Narcissa was sitting stock still as she stared out the window at the passing scenery.

"Everything is going to be alright, Narcissa." James said softly.

"You don't know that." she replied, her voice heavy with sorrow. She sighed. "I haven't been able to get a hold of Lucius." she continued. "He's on a business trip in different time zone. He's going to be upset that he was unreachable."

James wasn't sure she wasn't trying to convince herself of that last part. "Worry about that later." he told her. "Right now, we should focus on Draco and Harry."

Narcissa nodded almost imperceptibly. "Have you spoken to Lily, or Ginny?"

"Yes, they're in Paris with Molly for Ginny's final dress fitting. I told them to stay put I would keep them updated." James explained. "There isn't anything any of them can do here."

"Is there anything we can do here? Honestly, what are their odds?"

"The S.R.U. are the best at what they do. If anyone can get them out, it's Moody and his team."

xXx

On the far side of the court room Blaise, Neville and Luna sat together on the floor against the jury's stand. "I'm almost afraid to ask. What are your thoughts on his state of mind?" Blaise muttered trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

"He's desperate." Luna replied. "His whole life seems to be collapsing around him and he probably won't acknowledge that it's his own fault. That's why he's blaming Draco."

"He always followed Draco around in school, like some kind of henchman." Blaise explained.

"Which would make Draco the easy and most likely target of his issues of inadequacy." Luna continued.

"Is there anything we can do?' Neville asked subtly, leaning into the conversation.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Without knowing what the negotiator has planned, he could become even more volatile."

Blaise sighed. "Well, what exactly does the negotiator have to do?"

"He has two options. He either gives him what he wants under different circumstances, or he talks him down until he forgets what he wanted in the first place. Given his actions so far I doubt he'll forget."

"So it'll have to be the ladder." Blaise finished.

Across the courtroom, sitting shoulder to shoulder, Hermione and Draco watched Greg pace the floor. Not far from them, Harry, still cuffed to the table, had sat down, his arm hanging above his head and his eyes trained on Greg for any possible opening to end this. Greg's increasing agitation was only furthering the anxiety in the room and Harry was careful to check on the other hostages across the room as well. The last thing they needed was for any of them to panic.

"They never give you what you want." Greg's voice sounded, a low mutter under his breath. "It's all just a stall tactic. Get inside your head, mess with your mind until your pliable."

"He's completely lost it." Draco mumbled. He barely heard Hermione's hum of agreement before he felt her hand move into his pocket. He resisted the urge to jump as she wrapped her hand around his phone and slid it out of his pocket, keeping it hidden between them.

They both watched tensely until Greg moved away from them, fully distracted by whatever was going on in his head, before Hermione pulled the phone out and dialed a number quickly. She then dropped it on the floor against the wall, hidden by their bodies.

xXx

Ron helped Pansy up the steps into the mobile command center then escorted her down the length to greet Terry Booth at the other end, while Narcissa and James stopped to greet Remus and Sirius.

"Here, why don't you sit down." Terry offered and he and Ron helped her into the seat beside Tonks. "How are you doing?" he asked once she was situated.

"I've been better." she replied matter of fact.

"I can imagine. Look, I'm not going to lie to you, this isn't the ideal situation, but we are not going to let anything happen to you, and you are not getting anywhere near him. Alright?" Pansy nodded. "Good. Now, I'm going to do everything I can to talk him down. Do you think that you can handle speaking with him over the phone, or even possibly a video link?" Pansy hesitated for only a moment before;

"Whatever it takes to get them out of there." she replied.

"Hey," Tonks interrupted drawing everyone's attention to her. "Hermione's up to something." As one they seemed to move, gathering around the screen, all eyes focused on the tiny figure of Hermione sitting along the wall beside Draco. Greg was on the other side of the room, staring off into space and they walked as Hermione pulled something from between them, a cell phone, and started to dial. Just as quickly the phone was gone, moved behind them and out of sight.

"What is she doing?" Remus questioned. As if to answer him, James' phone went off and he pulled it out.

"Unknown number." he said as he answered. At first there was nothing but static noise, moving of fabric etc, but then, just as Greg moved back across the room toward Hermione, Draco and Harry, they could hear his voice, muttering to himself under his breath.

"And now we have audio." Tonks said quietly taking James' phone and hooking it up to her equipment, making the two way signal one way. "That's some daughter you've got there cousin." she continued.

"We know."

"It sounds like he's devolving." Terry told Moody, watching the screens. "Now might be our only chance to talk him down." he turned to Pansy. "Are you ready?" She nodded taking a headset from Tonks as Terry picked up his end of the line.

They all paid close attention to the monitors as the phone began to ring, drawing Greg out of his thoughts.

"Do you have what I asked for?" he asked immediately upon answering.

"Pansy is here. She's waiting to talk to you, Greg." Terry replied nodding to Pansy who took a shaky breath.

"Greg?" she asked her voice small. "What are you doing in there?"

"Pansy?" he replied. "Oh fuck. Baby, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I hurt you. I'll do anything to make it up to you."

"It's okay Greg." she answered.

"I know there's something wrong with me." he continued. "I'll get help I promise. I just...I need to see you."

"It's alright Greg. Why don't you come out of there and we can talk, face to face."

Greg hesitated. "No, the police won't let me. They won't let me see you."

"Yes they will. They promised me that they would. Okay, just...they're just worried about those people you have in there with you."

When Greg didn't respond this time, Pansy looked up at Terry wide eyed. He shot her a reassuring look, but it was all for naught as Greg replied;

"You mean they're worried about Malfoy." his voice was eerily calm.

"What?" Pansy asked confused.

"It's always about Malfoy."

Before she can reply, Greg hung up, slamming the receiver violently against the cradle.

Horrified, they all watched helplessly as he turned on Draco.

xXx

"You know, I make one mistake, just one and my whole world falls apart!" Greg began, eyes manic as he stared Draco down. "I'm going to lose everything because of one tiny mistake but you… oh no not for you. Not for Draco Malfoy. No, you make a mistake and you get a shiny new job and a chance to start over!" he continued. "You get a guy off for murder and then he goes and kills someone else that same night and instead of losing your job and being shunned as some scum bag lawyer, you get offered a job on the other side. Somebody died because of you but no, that's not your fault. Everybody has to coddle the prince."

Despite his position on the floor Draco glared defiantly up at him, feeling Hermione shift ever so slightly closer as he tensed under the onslaught of words.

"I mean just look at this." Greg added gesturing to Hermione. "You even get the girl. She's trying to comfort you now, after hearing all that, after hating you in school. You know I always thought it was funny. She couldn't stand you because you were such a jerk but you had such a crush on her. And now look at you, no apologies necessary, they just fall at your feet!"

xXx

"What is he talking about?" Terry asked looking down at Narcissa who was kneeling beside Pansy, her arms around the younger woman.

Narcissa sighed. "Last summer Draco took a case at his father's request. He got the man off of a manslaughter charge. That night, while he was celebrating his client killed someone else." she explained shortly.

Terry looked ready to answer when Greg's voice suddenly stopped. Until that point he'd been ranting and raving almost uncontrollably and the abrupt stop, the silence was palpable. Terry just managed to catch sight of him before the phone rang again.

"You have ten minutes to get my wife in her or I'll start shooting hostages. One for every minute you're late, starting with Granger."

xXx

With that declaration chaos erupted. Harry struggled against his restraints, pulling at them as if the table would give under the force. Meanwhile Draco was struggling to his feet, determined to keep himself between Greg and Hermione. He'd just barely gotten to his feet before Greg is there, hitting him hard in the temple with the grip of his gun before he could react and defend himself.

"No!" Hermione exclaimed getting to her knees. But Greg was there before she could make it to Draco's side. He took a hold of her arm, yanking her to her feet and pulling her along behind him. Greg stopped near the center of the room, forcing her to her knees again and pressing the muzzle of the gun against the back of her head.

"I know you can see me! You have nine minutes left!"

xXx

"That son of bitch!" Sirius exclaimed. It took all of James and Remus' strength to hold him back. "Fucking do something!" he continued screaming at Terry.

"Enough!" Moody snapped ending the confusion. "This is why you don't bring family in on these things." he directed at James. James nodded.

"He's right, come on." he replied tugging Sirius toward the door. Sirius went reluctantly, Remus not far behind.

"If he hurts her I'll kill that bastard with my bare hands." Sirius said as his feet hit the pavement outside.

"I'll never sleep again." Remus muttered. "Every time I close my eyes I'll only ever see that."

"Why the bloody hell is the world going crazy all of sudden?" Sirius asked. "First with Hermione's strange behavior and then the break in and now this. What the hell is going on?"

"I don't really think those things compare to this, Pads." James said.

"You know what I mean Prongs." Sirius snapped.

James didn't get the chance to reply as Pansy appeared in the doorway above them. Narcissa and Ron right behind her. Sirius and Remus moved to help her down, setting her on her feet until Narcissa came up to let Pansy lean on her.

"I'm going in." she told them.

"What?" Remus asked confused.

"Sweetheart, Remus and I want our daughter back and safe, there's no doubt about that but that doesn't mean we want you to risk your own life. You've been through more than any one person should ever be."

"I know." she replied resolute. "And I appreciate that, but I'm going. They've got a plan. It will work."

It sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than them, but the determination in her eyes left little room for them to argue.

xXx

"They're running out of time." Greg said almost gleefully. Hermione tensed up, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall. She would not give this monster the satisfaction. Regrets flashed through her mind. All the things she still had to tell her fathers, the conversation she and Draco still hadn't had. She wouldn't get to see her best friend marry the love of his life or walk down the aisle herself one day. And worst of all she would never know the truth, the truth about what really happened to Uncle Peter.

"Times up."

"Greg?"


	13. Hostage Part III

Conviction

Chapter 13: Hostage Part III

xXx

 _Pansy was in her element, here among the wealth of society she flourished. With not a hair out of place, nails freshly manicured, make up flawlessly applied, dress just the right side of snug and heels as sharp as sin, she fit perfectly into this world and yet stood out from the crowd just as well. She was the queen here. The one to impress, the one to seduce._

 _She loved it._

 _She mingled as she'd been taught to at a young age, charming the men and flattering the women. She made sure to make an appearance at her father's elbow once or twice to greet his friends and studiously avoided her mother as much as humanly possible after she'd had a drink or two in her system._

" _Pansy?" she heard her name called, at some point into the night, and turned, meeting a familiar face._

" _Greg?" She replied, surprised to see her old school friend. She stepped up to hug him, which he gladly accepted. "Are you back from France then?" she asked when she pulled away._

" _Yes, the merger went through so I'm back in London for the foreseeable future."_

" _Well that's good to hear." she replied with a smile. Before Greg could say anything else Pansy's mother appeared almost out of thin air, looking as regal as anyone who was, from last count, on her fifth flute of champagne. She spoke pleasantries with Greg for a moment or two before pulling Pansy away to meet an investor or two._

 _When they were gone, Greg slugged back his drink and turned on his heels only to stop short at the man standing behind him. "Mr. Riddle. I'm sorry I didn't see you there." Greg greeted the older man. He smiled back in that polite way he usually did._

 _Thomas Riddle Jr was in his late thirties and currently running his father's, Tom Riddle Sr's, Company. He was handsome with thick dark hair and aristocratic features. He was a good friend of his father's Gregory Goyle Sr and to Greg's knowledge he seemed to be on good terms or better with several of the families of the kids he went to school with and more._

" _That's quite alright, Gregory. I couldn't help but notice your reunion was cut short." Riddle replied._

" _Oh yes, just an old school friend." Greg told him with a shrug._

" _It looked like more than that from where I was standing." Riddle told him. "If I may be so bold, Gregory, as I have learned throughout my life, if you want something, you must fight for it. Go after it with determination." Riddle gestured for Greg to walk with him toward the bar where he ordered the younger man a fresh drink. "Miss Parkinson is a beautiful young woman, who from what I hear is quite independent. If you are interested you must be willing to do whatever necessary for her."_

xXx

" _Greg?"_

The pressure at the back of her skull was gone in an instant and even as Greg stepped away, making his way toward the door and the source of the voice, Hermione struggled to find her breath. When she did find it again, it came in short panting gasps as she fought off a panic attack. She pulled her eyes from the floor and looked across the room to find Harry watching her, his breathing just as labored as his piercing green eyes stared her down, trying to convey that he was there, that she was still alive.

The sound of the lock coming off drew their attention to the door and they watched as Greg opened the it just enough for Pansy to hobble through. Hermione looked to Harry shocked before they both found Draco on the floor. He seemed to have fallen unconscious at the blow Greg dealt him. Probably a good thing. They had no idea how he would react to this turn of event.

Greg locked the door once Pansy was inside and when it was secure he turned to her and pulled her into a hug. "Oh thank god you're here." he whispered into her hair before pulling back. It was only then that he got a good look at her. The bruising around her face and neck was turning a putrid shade of brown as they healed, her leg all the way passed her knee was in a brace and she was struggling not to put any weight on it. The full severity of what he had done hit him then, driving him to his knees in front of her, tears beginning to fall. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry." he told her. "I'm so so sorry. Please, I'm so sorry." he just kept repeating it over and over his head bowed to the floor and Pansy took the moment to look over the room, locating Hermione then Harry, then Draco. Harry and Hermione were watching her; Harry clearly confused but Hermione's expression showed more concern for Pansy then anything. A fact Pansy was grateful for. It did more to bolster her confidence than one would think possible of the former "enemies".

"It's okay Greg. I forgive you." she replied, running a hand through his shortly cropped hair. "But now that I'm here, we can get out of here together." she continued.

Greg looked up at her. "How?" he asked confused.

"Well now that I'm here you can take me hostage. We'll walk right out the front door. As long as I'm with you they won't do anything. We can run away and go somewhere where noone can find us. We can start over." she told him, tears starting to fall as she spoke. To Greg it only cemented the sincerity of her words but inside, Pansy was fighting off the urge to throw up. There was nothing she wanted more than to take advantage of his position and hurt him the way he had hurt her, but with her injuries and the fact that he was still armed she knew she needed to focus on the plan.

Greg pulled himself to his feet a hopeful look settling on his face. "Really?" he asked. Pansy nodded, wiping at her eyes. "Okay." he continued, taking a deep breath and just like that it was as if nothing had been wrong at all. "But I have a better way. Wait here." and with that he turned on his heels dashing up the aisle in the gallery and disappearing through the door of the judges chambers.

When he was out of sight, Pansy moved as quickly as she could on her damaged knee, checking on Hermione briefly before she continued on to the front of the court room where she stopped beside Harry and turned her back on him. Harry watched her confused for a moment until he saw her slip a hand into her pocket and produce a set of handcuff keys. She passed them to him and he took them, palming the keys. Once he had the keys, Pansy looked over her shoulder at him, making eye contact then looking down at her unbraced leg. Harry bent forward and reached into the leg of her pants finding a small handgun strapped to her ankle. He took that as well, hiding it.

Pansy had just enough time to check on Draco and put some distance between them, leaning against the table to avoid suspicion before Greg returned looking pleased and rather excited.

"So get this." Greg began. "There's a bomb shelter right here in this court room. A remnant left over from World War II. It's in the judge's chambers. We can get out through there. It has another access tunnel that leads a few blocks away from here. We can make a clean exit."

Pansy stood before him stunned.

xXx

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Moody cursed under his breath reaching for the hand held radio just as Tonks pulled up a schematic of the buildings World War II era structure. He barked orders into it, sending a team to an abandoned corner deli where the tunnel surfaced three blocks away. "I want to know everything about that tunnel. And keep your eyes open for anyone suspicious hanging around."

"How the hell did he get it open?" Tonks asked confused as she studied the blueprints. "This tunnel he's talking about, it's been sealed for decades, ever since the courthouse was remodeled in the eighties. There's no way he could have gotten it open without heavy equipment. A blow torch, crowbars, hell the jaws of life."

"He had to have figured out some way." Terry replied though he had no idea how either.

xXx

"You look skeptical." Blaise whisper, leaning into Luna. She shook her head ever so slightly.

"All of this implies that he had a plan all along. That none of this was made up out of desperation." she explained.

"And it's not possible?" Neville asked.

"He's not exactly stable enough for that. Which means, either he's trying to get Pansy away from the cameras or someone else planned this and set him loose."

xXx

"There are no cameras in the back." Tonks explained. "I have no way to check if he's bluffing."

"Why would he bluff about something like that?" Terry asked.

"He could be trying to get her alone." Moody suggested.

"Yes, but, he also knows he's being watched, why would he give his plan away like that? His only clean escape." Terry continued.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he forgot." Tonks replied. "He's not exactly the most sound of mind right now."

Before anyone could reply the radio crackled to life. "Control, control, come in control. This is Betta team checking in."

"We read you Betta, what have you found?" Moody answered.

"We can confirm the tunnel is open. It looks like it was cut open, judging by the rate of cooling and the settled dust it was opened no more than two days ago."

"Copy that Betta, hold your positions and prepare for anyone trying to go in or come out."

"Has anything Greg has done so far told you that he's capable of this kind of planning?" Remus spoke up. Until then Remus, Sirius, James and Narcissa had remained quiet, simply listening and watching. Spectators in a very fucked up sport.

Terry shook his head. "No, other than having that lockbar ready all of this seemed sporadic. Off the cuff even. To be honest I chalked that lockbar up to a fluke after reviewing his entrance."

"Could he have been faking it this entire time? Making us think he's unstable?" James asked.

"I don't think he's smart enough to plan something like that out." Narcissa replied. "His father's money got him through most of his schooling. He's not exactly an over achiever."

"Maybe he's working with someone." Tonks suggested. "Maybe all of this is a distraction for something else."

xXx

"How did you know the tunnel was down there?" Pansy finally found the words to speak.

"It doesn't matter. It's there, it's open and we can use it. We can go. Be together." Greg explained enthusiastically. It only took a moment of silence, watching her for him to realize that she no longer looked sure of him. Or perhaps, she'd never been sure to begin with and he'd deluded himself into thinking she really wanted him back. "What's wrong?" he finally asked.

"Nothing, I just, I didn't know you'd thought this through so much." she replied.

"It's all for you baby." he answered but the enthusiasm was gone and in another moment he knew. He knew the truth. She wasn't coming with him. "Well that's just fine." he thought to himself watching as she flinched at the first sign of anger to cross his face. "You've been deceiving me. Working against me." he accused and when she didn't deny it he knew exactly what he needed to do. He nodded, a calm over taking him that frightened Pansy more than any amount of anger he was capable of. "That's fine." he finally said lifting his gun. Pansy backed away, whimpering as it came up, but her fear was replaced with confusion when instead of turning it on her, he aimed straight down the aisle where Hermione was still sitting on the floor.

It all moved in slow motion then, like the climactic scene in a cheesy procedural drama. Pansy heard the click behind her and knew instantly what it meant. She didn't know how she knew, she'd never heard the sound before but she reacted none the less, diving to the floor so as not to be caught in the crossfire. Her sudden movement caught Greg by surprise and he turned to find Harry, now free, aiming a pistol at him.

Greg looked resolute as he took in the scene for a split second before turning back to Hermione, ready to pull the trigger. The sound of gun going off startled everyone and it wasn't until Greg fell that they breathed a sigh of relief.

Harry was off the floor quickly, rushing to Greg's side and sliding the gun away from him. He checked his pulse as Hermione forced herself up on shaky legs, by passing Harry for Pansy, making it to her side seconds before Blaise. They watched as Luna went to Draco's side checking him over and Neville made for the door, pulling the lockbar up and opening it for the SWAT team stationed outside.

"Is he dead?" Pansy asked as Blaise and Hermione helped her to her feet. Harry looked back at her and shook his head.

"His pulse is weak." he explained, saying nothing more as two sets of paramedics rushed in after the SWAT team.

They didn't stay to see what happened to Greg only waiting until they could hear what the medics had to say about Draco before helping Pansy out of the courtroom and out the front entrance. It was there they met up with Ron.

"Are you alright?" he asked Hermione, clearly containing his panic.

"I'm fine." she replied pulling him closer and moving Pansy's arm from around her neck to his. Together he and Blaise helped her over to an ambulance where Narcissa was waiting. Hermione watched as the older woman embraced Pansy checking her over and speaking quickly.

Not long after both teams of medics came rushing out, one taking Greg away and from the bits and pieces she over heard as they passed, struggling to keep him alive. The second team moved a bit slower and Hermione could only hope that meant Draco's condition wasn't as bad as they all feared. The stretcher was rolled to the ambulance they'd dropped Pansy off at and much to Hermione's surprise, Pansy climbed out, standing with Ron as Narcissa climbed into the ambulance and drove off with them.

"Are you alright?" Luna's soothing voice asked. Hermione turned to see the blonde coming up behind her. Hermione nodded.

"Peachy. You should go home and get some rest." Hermione replied.

Luna smiled softly. "You should do the same. I'm sure your father's would be happy to take you." she continued gesturing to a point over Hermione's shoulder. Hermione turned to see Remus and Sirius emerge from behind a large RV, James following behind them. They picked up their pace when they spotted her, pulling her between them when they made it in an embrace that made it very hard to hold back her emotions. But she managed.

"Can we go home now?" she asked her voice so small.

xXx

"He failed. And so has the team."

"So I see. It would appear my plans are proving more difficult that I originally estimated. We're going to have to go about this from an entirely different perspective."


	14. Decompressing

Conviction

Chapter 14: Decompressing

xXx

Crookshanks looked up as he heard the key in the lock. He stood from his place curled up on the sofa and jumped down just as the door opened to reveal his favorite person.

Hermione pushed through the front door without a word, leading her father's in. She stooped down as Crookshanks padded up to her, scooping him up off the floor and burying her face in his fur as she hugged him against her chest.

"Why don't we order take away and watch a movie?" Sirius's voice was soft as he stepped up behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders. Hermione nodded.

"Okay." She replied dropping Crookshanks back on the sofa. "I'm going to go get a shower." She continued, heading for the back bedroom. They waited until they heard the door close before moving around the flat.

"I'm going to call the airline and cancel out tickets. We can go to the beach house once everything settles." Remus explained fishing his cell phone out of his pocket.

"Alright. You know, after everything Hermione's been through we should take her with us."

Remus snorted. "She'll never go for that, but if you want her to be mad at you feel free to offer. I'm sure there's nothing a little girl dreams of more than going on her fathers' Honeymoon with them.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Point taken."

xXx

Hermione stood in the shower, the hot water pounding down on her shoulders. She took in deep calming breaths trying to fight back the image of that gun pointed at her, of the resolute look in Greg's eyes as he stared her down, heedless of the gun pointed at him as well. One thing was for certain, Greg knew he was caught and he was determined to take her with him.

But why? Why her? Why not Draco or Pansy? Not that she wanted anything to happen to either of them, mind you, but she was nothing to him. He'd spent most of the afternoon complaining about Draco and desperate to get his wife back but in his last stand he decides to take her out. "It doesn't make sense." she muttered to herself.

Could it really be so simple that he wanted to hurt Draco on his way down? Sure he'd admitted that Draco had a crush on her in school and she had one on him too, though she'd never admit it out loud, but was a school days crush really justification for killing someone to hurt someone else? Ignoring the fact that they'd had a very interesting evening-and morning-the week before, because quite frankly no one knew about it except the two of them, what exactly did Greg hope to accomplish? She supposed he had proven he wasn't entirely stable today but the look in his eyes in those final moments told her that he knew exactly what he was doing, exactly what he wanted.

Hermione cut her thoughts off as bile rose in her throat. She slammed the knob off and forced the glass door open, just barely managing to get the toilet lid up before retching. As the nausea passes a weary feeling seeped into her muscles and Hermione had to force herself to her feet to dry and dress in her ratty old pajamas, throwing a hoodie she stole from Harry years ago on top.

The flat was mostly quiet when she stepped out of her room. She could hear movement from the kitchen, but it was muted, and across the living room the sofa in front of the television was pulled out into the sofa bed. Crookshanks was curled up in the center and Hermione climbed up, curling herself around the old cat and burying her face in his fur once again. Crookshanks began to purr then, soothing her into a light doze until she became aware of the bed beneath her shifting.

"Hey kitten." Sirius greeted her softly as she looked up at him, his hand gently running through her wet curls. He was smiling at her in that way that always made her feel better, no matter what she had been through. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Hungry. And tired." she replied through a yawn, pulling Crookshanks closer.

"Well, I ordered from your favorite place down the street. It should be here soon. In the meantime what do you want to watch?"

Hermione thought about it for a minute before; "Something stupid."

Sirius chuckled.

xXx

Narcissa was just hanging up her cell phone when she entered Draco's room, drawing his attention away from the television mounted in the far corner.

"How's Pansy?" he asked as she reclaimed her seat beside his bed.

"She's alright. Inspector Weasley agreed to stay with her until we get home tomorrow." she explained.

"You should go home now, mother." Draco argued lightly. "There's no need for you to sit up with me all night."

"Oh don't be ridiculous." she waved a dismissive hand at him. "It'll be just like when you were a little boy and you had the flu."

Draco huffed a laugh, knowing there wasn't anything he could do to dissuade her. She'd made up her mind and she wasn't going to change it anytime soon. With a sigh he looked back toward the television, flipping through the channels slowly, stopping only once he'd come across a news report of the incident that morning. Police were still around the courthouse, police tape everywhere as officers came and went from the scene collecting evidence and taking statements.

"I wonder how Hermione is doing?" Narcissa asked absently.

"Probably getting ready for work tomorrow. She's got a talent for pretending nothing is wrong."

Narcissa hummed. "She's takes after Sirius in that regard." she told him. "I remember when we were kids. He used to be so dramatic-"

"-Used to be?"

"-He'd complain about every little thing his mother did, but you'd never hear a word about the things that really bothered him."

"That doesn't surprise me."

Narcissa chuckled. "Did I ever tell you about the time Sirius wore a Metallica t-shirt under his suit jacket to a family function?"

"Oh geez, aunt Walburga had to have loved that."

"Oh yes, he walked into the ballroom of Grimmauld Place with his head held high and smirk on his face. He had on those aviator sunglasses too, I honestly don't know how he could see that house was always so dark. Aunt Walburga was furious, she started yelling at him right there in the middle of the room. And do you know what he said?"

"No, what?"

"You said I had to wear a suit jacket, so just be thankful I decided to wear pants."

Draco couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard. He could just picture a young Sirius, with his long hair and devil may care attitude, in that massive ballroom surrounded by family and looking so proud of himself as he answered his mother's vitriol with the most logical response he was capable of. He was pretty young when his great aunt Walburga had died but he could still vaguely remember the pinched intolerant look on her face and he pictured it now in response to Sirius' insolence.

"What did Great Uncle Orion do?" he asked.

"Well, he didn't think it was funny but he gave Sirius credit for creativity."

Draco smiled. "Did you ever rebel?" Draco questioned.

"Oh yes." Narcissa replied looking away, her mood shifting ever so slightly.

"What did you do?"

Narcissa finally looked back up at him. "I married your father."

Draco was stunned. "The family didn't approve of him?" he asked confused.

"No, they didn't. Especially my father, your grandfather. I never really understood why. The Malfoy's were everything father wanted me to marry into but," she shrugged. "He just didn't like Lucius. He said he didn't trust him. That there was a shadow cast over that family." Narcissa shook her head. "To this day I still have no idea what he meant. He refused to elaborate."

They sat in silence for awhile, but it didn't last long. The rest of the night was spent telling old stories and Draco realized then that there was so much he didn't know.

xXx

Potter manor was a sprawling estate in Godric's Hollow not far outside London. It had been passed down through the Potter line for generations, currently residing in the ownership of James and Lily Potter. One day when Harry and Ginny were finally settled and began to have children, Lily and James would move out to a smaller place, just the right size for the two of them and Harry and Ginny would take their turn to raise the newest generation of Potter's in their rightful home. In the meantime though, the home still housed the elder Potter couple and anyone else who needed a place to stay or who came to visit.

James led the way through the front door, stopping short as Lily bounded into his arms, waves of relief pouring off of her as he wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in. Harry just managed to get around his parents before Ginny did the same, trying to remain calm as she buried her face in his neck and reminded herself that he was okay.

"Oh thank goodness you're alright." Lily said as she pulled away. Ginny pulled away as well letting the Potter Matriarch hug her only child.

"We're alright mum, barely a bruise. I promise." Harry told her as she stepped back.

"I know, I know, I just get so nervous with you two going off and playing hero all the time." Lily told them.

"Well if it makes you feel better, the team is on mandatory leave until Monday." Harry explained.

"And," James added. "He's agreed to stay here tonight."

"If that's okay with you." Harry directed at Ginny.

"Of course it is." she replied stepping up beside him. Harry wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side, laying a kiss on the top of her head.

"Well then." Lily finally spoke. "I'm going to make dinner then." none of them wanted her to go to any trouble but the look on her face belayed any argument they may have had.

"I'm going to run upstairs and shower." Harry told them before heading toward the stairs, Ginny on his heels.

When they were gone, Lily turned to James. "How is he really doing?" she asked.

"He shot someone, Lils. It doesn't matter that he was a bad guy or that he was threatening his sister, Goyle is still a human being." James explained.

"Have you heard anything about Greg?" she asked.

"The doctor's aren't hopeful. The shot was close range and Harry hit his mark. It's a miracle Greg's still alive to even go through surgery."

Upstairs in the room Harry called his own while growing up, he closed the door behind Ginny and made his way toward the bed, collapsing back on it in utter exhaustion. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, feeling comfort wash over him as Ginny crawled up next to him and curled up against him. They lie there quietly, the only sounds their own breathing.

"How was the trip?" Harry asked, his voice low, like a murmur in the dark.

"For the first time in months our mothers actually agreed on something." Ginny replied, tracing patterns with her fingertips across his chest.

Harry chuckled. "I'm glad they didn't drive you nuts."

"They were definitely on their best behavior." He could hear the amusement in her voice and then it was gone. "Things got a little heavy when your dad called though. He told us not to rush home, but we were actually flying back when he called." she explained.

"I'm sorry I worried you, love."

"I forgive you." she practically whispered. Harry could tell there was something wrong, something she wasn't telling him. Ginny had never been overly thrilled when he joined the academy but he'd talked about following in his father's footsteps through most of his later teen years and she had always been supportive, even when he knew she was scared for him.

"Ginny," he called out to her gently. "Tell me what's wrong."

He felt her still against him before she heaved a sigh and sat up. He followed her, watching her face as the emotions warred behind her beautiful eyes.

"I love you." she told him.

"I love you too." he replied immediately. He didn't even have to think about it. He'd loved her for years and he would love her for years to come.

"You know I've never liked your job," she continued and Harry nodded. "But I know how much it means to you, so I hold my tongue and smile for you." she took a deep breath letting it out slowly. "When Hermione offered you the job on her task force I was so happy. I thought, what possible danger could he be in looking into old cases instead of out in field,but you're still in danger aren't you?"

"I wish I could say that I wasn't." he replied. "And I'm sorry that I worry you and that my job scares you. I wish I could say that everything is going to be okay, but I can't. The only consolation I can offer you is that this all had nothing to do with my job and everything to do with the people we know."

Ginny huffed, finally smiling if only ruefully. "That's comforting. We're all screwed then aren't we?"

Harry laughed reaching forward and wrapping his arms around her. He pulled her into him and kissed her, trying, if only for a moment to help her forget everything; her worries, her fears. When they pulled away he smirked down at her.

"So, about that shower." he hinted, eyebrows waggling comically.

Ginny laughed, pushing him back and jumping off the bed, disappearing into the en suite bathroom.

xXx

The Leaky Cauldron was a kitschy little pub in the heart of London. The owner, Old Tom as patrons and workers alike tended to call him, had been an artist in his youth and filled the old building with color and ornamentation that was both pleasing and painful to look at.

Hannah Abbot had been beside herself for hours, ever since the news began to circulate. The television behind the bar had been switched off by Tom when he saw how it frayed her nerves and she was both grateful and upset at being cut off.

"He's going to be alright, Hannah, you have to have faith." a coworker told her as she pulled her purse from her locker. She was taking calming breaths as she moved about the back room, trying to fight off the tears and panic that threatened her sanity. With her shift now over, she was headed home, where there would be nothing to distract her from the unanswered questions.

"I know. I know he's strong and smart and he's… well it's silly really. He's okay. He's Neville Longbottom, there isn't anything he can't do."

Her friend smiled at her, but before she could respond another waitress rushed into the room.

"Hannah come quick." she instructed ruining every bit of calm she'd managed to wrestle out of herself. Hannah shared a look with her friend before rushing down the long back hallway and emerging into the main dining room. Relief flooded her as she caught sight of Neville across the room. He was talking with Tom, a bouquet of her favorite flowers in hand.

Tom stopped talking abruptly and looked over Neville's shoulder at her, prompting the young man to turn around. He smiled when he saw her and she rushed through the room, dodging tables until she could throw her arms around her.

"I didn't worry you too much did I?" he asked, pulling away just enough to look her in the eye.

"Oh no, not at all. I knew you'd be alright." she told him. He smiled.

"Well, just in case I did, I bought you some flowers. Your favorite." he told her. "I thought I could drive you home." Hannah nodded, accepting her bag from one of her coworkers before letting Neville lead her out of the restaurant and to his car parked on the side of the road.

The trip was pleasant but Hannah soon realized they weren't headed toward her flat. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"I thought we could get something to eat on the way." Neville told her and she smiled and nodded and soon enough they pulled into the car park of an old familiar diner. "Seemed appropriate." he told her when she looked at him questioningly. It was in this very diner that Neville had accidently bumped into Hannah on her way back to her table. She'd been instantly smitten with his innocent nature and fumbling apologies and before she knew it ten of the most wonderful months of her life had passed. Their schedules were usually pretty packed, what with his work and her schooling and part time job, but they always made time for each other.

Finding a table was easy, it wasn't the busiest place in London and they ordered quickly.

"So, how are you?" Hannah asked him.

"Better than my coworkers." he replied. "Draco's in the hospital overnight for observation. He's got a concussion and I can only imagine how Hermione is fairing."

Hannah nodded. She didn't know what that meant but judging by the way he said it, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. "I'm just thankful you're alright."

Neville smiled reaching across the table and grasping her hands. "Me too." he chuckled.

Slowly the smile slipped off his face and he looked away deep in thought. "Listen Hannah, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about for a while now." he finally spoke up again.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Well, over the last few months I've, well I've really enjoyed getting to know you and I care quite a bit about you. The thing is… uh…" he huffed in amusement, he hadn't been this tongue tied since he was a kid. "Would you want to move in with me?" he blurted out.

Hannah sat stock still for a moment letting his words wash over her. Slowly a smile spread across her face. "Oh thank goodness, for a minute there I thought you were breaking up with me."

Neville smiled. "What man in his right mind would ever do that?" he asked. Hannah blushed.

"Neville, I would love to move in with you." she replied.

Neville grinned.

They ate dinner when it came and when they were finished, Neville drove them back to Hannah's flat. Hannah disappeared into the bedroom, changing out of her uniform before joining Neville on the sofa where they cuddled up together.

xXx

"I'm fine, mother." Blaise spoke into his cell phone. "No, no there's no need for you to come home. I'm alright. Not even a scratch." there was a pause as he listened, then; "I'm sure, you enjoy your vacation with Walter and I'll see you when you get home. And no, I haven't talked to Dad, he's been in meetings all day." a few minutes later he wrapped up the conversation and hung up, slipping his phone into his pocket and returning his attention to his drink. Behind the bar a television ran the news, captions flashing across the screen in lieu of sound.

"Is this seat taken?" a voice called behind him and he turned to find a brunette woman in an expensive black suit standing beside the stool next to him.

"No, it's all yours." he replied and she smiled, taking a seat and ordering a drink. "Crazy what happened at the courthouse isn't it?" she said after a few minutes.

"Yeah," Blaise replied around the rim of his tumbler. "What is this world coming to?"

"Mmm," she hummed. "I'm Claire." she introduced herself in her distinctly American accent.

"Blaise." he replied. "Are you waiting for someone?"

Claire nodded. "I'm meeting some friends for dinner. Apparently I work too much and they've insisted we meet up."

"Oh, what do you do?" he asked, turning slightly to face her better.

"I'm a photographer. Nature photography." she explained. "I travel alot so my friends are a little pushy when I finally come back into town."

Blaise chuckled. "I can imagine."

"What about you, are you meeting anyone?" she asked.

"Oh no, I just got off work. A drink, some dinner and a quiet night at home are in my future." Blaise replied.

"And what do you do?"

"I'm a lawyer." he told her.

"Oh how interesting, what kind of law do you practice?"

"Criminal, I'm a prosecutor." he explained.

"Oh really? You weren't at the courthouse today were you?" she asked concerned.

"I was in the area." he fibbed.

Before Claire could respond her name was called from the entrance to the bar area and she turned to see a group of woman waving at her.

"Your friends?" he asked. She nodded getting up from the stool.

"Well, it was very nice talking to you." she told him.

"Likewise." he replied watching as she dug through her purse. When she seemed to have found what she was looking for she looked back up at him.

"I hope this doesn't seem too forward, but," she pulled out a business card from her purse and held it out to him. He took it. "I'll be in town for a week or two, if you're not too busy maybe we can continue this conversation."

He simply nodded and she walked off.

xXx

Luna stared up at the ceiling, a thousand thoughts racing through her mind. It was nights like these, or rather mornings, that she found her mind straying. With everything that had happened the day before her mind was working over time to piece together the clues Greg had inadvertently left.

"Luna?" she heard called softly beside her. Luna turned her head and smiled at the beautiful woman lying beside her. "Can't sleep?" Dr. Cho Chang asked shifting closer and laying her head on Luna's shoulder.

Luna hummed.

"Are you alright?" Cho questioned pecking her shoulder with a kiss.

"I suppose. Maybe a little worried about Draco's concussion. and, of course, how Hermione's handling everything." Luna replied.

"Well, I can't speak for Hermione but I took a peek at Draco's file when they brought him into the ER. He should be fine, the concussion was mild. His doctor thinks he'll be able to go home in the morning."

Luna nodded, turning to stare back up at the ceiling. They laid in silence for a moment before Cho sighed, throwing the blankets off and sitting up. "Come on." She urged throwing on her sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"Where are you going?" Luna asked.

"I'm hungry." Cho replied.

"It's two a.m."

"When has that ever stopped us?" Cho laughed, leading the way toward the kitchen. "Remember when we were in medical school and stayed up all night studying?"

Luna chuckled. "Sure, we used to eat through that week's groceries in a night and do anything but study."

"Pretty much."

In the kitchen, Cho started pulling leftovers out of the fridge while Luna set about pulling snacks from the cupboard. By the time they were done the island was filled with food. They each pulled up a stood from the breakfast bar and took a seat, digging in.

"So," Cho began. "What's really bothering you?" she asked and Luna took a moment to marvel at how well Cho knew her.

Luna sighed, sticking her chop sticks into her take out box and setting it aside. "Everything about this incident just seems wrong. Goyle was completely unstable, no one can dispute that and yet he supposedly had this elaborate escape plan all along. And there was his insistence on targeting Hermione. He was determined that she die before he got caught."

"Maybe he was trying to hurt Draco?" Cho suggested. "You said they have a history and Greg was there for most of it."

Luna hummed, picking the container back up. "I mean that makes sense. I'm fairly certain they're sleeping together now, but I doubt he would know that."

Cho perked up. "Oh really?" she asked with a sly smirk. Luna nodded.

"What makes you think that?"

"It's very subtle, but there's a slight shift in the way they hold themselves around each other." Luna explained, staring down into the carton and swirling her noodles with her chopsticks. Cho laughed.

Luna sighed. "Anyway, I hope your right. I hope it's as simple as that because from the looks of it someone else was a part of the hostage situation and for what they accomplished they have to be pretty powerful."


	15. 48 Hours

Conviction

Chapter 15: 48 Hours

A/N: And I'm back! I can't promise weekly updates like before but I'm committed to finishing this story. I've got the next two chapters outlined, so hopefully they'll be up relatively quickly. I think I'm nearing the end of this story, at this point it's all about how far I stretch things out between chapters.

xXx

Hermione startled awake, the cold hard feeling at the back of her skull refusing to fade away even as she shook away the sleep. Beside her Sirius was snoring lightly, but the space on the other side of her, where she remembered Remus had been, was empty. Slowly she sat up, finally noticing Remus on the chair across from the sofa bed, his eyes tracking her every movement.

"What are you doing up?" she whispered.

"Couldn't sleep." he replied and then paused. "Are you alright?" he continued.

Hermione hesitated to answer, until finally she couldn't hold back the tears any longer. She shook her head. "No."

Remus gestured for her to come to him and she carefully extracted herself from the blankets, walking across the small space toward him. He pulled her down into his lap, holding her close as she let it all out.

Over her shoulder, Remus caught Sirius' eye as he sat up. A silent conversation seemed to pass between them, an agreement only they understood.

xXx

 _Remus had been working most of the day. His law firm was in the middle of an extended legal battle over the protection of an archaeological site in the middle of downtown and the opposition was not against underhanded tactics to achieve their goals. As if the city needed another ugly skyscraper covering up its history._

 _Regardless, Remus had been hard at work since just after breakfast that morning, stopping only long enough to eat whatever food Sirius brought in to him._

 _It was late when he finally looked up from his work and realized he wasn't alone. There, standing near the door was little Hermione, the newest addition to their family, clutching the little stuffed otter Sirius had gotten for her birthday a year prior. At only five years old she should have been cheerful, happy, running around like an adorable little helion, but she just looked exhausted and sad. A fact that broke Remus' heart._

 _Remus remembered the first time Sirius had mentioned Richard Granger. They had met at a bar downtown where Sirius intended to join a motorcycle enthusiasts club to occupy his time on nights Remus had to work late. They had hit it off from the first moment, despite their age difference. They started off bonding over their mutual love a particular bike manufacturer and before either of them knew it they were talking about their families._

 _Richard and his wife Helen had just had a baby girl they named Hermione and Sirius and Remus had just moved in with each other after years of dating. At some point their friendship expanded passed the bar and they were inviting each other over for dinner with their families. Before either of them knew it, they were the best of friends._

 _And then one day everything changed. Sirius had gotten the call from James who was training a new recruit on patrol procedures. There was a car accident, neither of the Granger's made it and Hermione was sent to the hospital with, thankfully minor injuries._

 _Sirius was distraught. The Grangers had been like family to them for the last five years. Neither of them had family of their own and while Remus and Sirius did, they were no longer close with them for very reasons. Sirius' concern quickly shifted to Hermione and what would happen to her. There was no next of kin and Sirius would rather die than let her go into the system._

 _Thankfully they didn't have to worry about it. Richard and Helen had seen how well Sirius and Remus had gotten along with Hermione, how much they cared for her as yet another member of their patchwork family and left them as her guardians in their will._

 _Sirius had been thrilled, but Remus was another matter altogether. Despite how much he loved Hermione, the fact of the matter remained, at the end of gatherings, she always went home. He wasn't entirely confident he would be a good father. Sirius assured him there could be no better father in the world but Remus still had his doubts._

" _What are you doing up at this hour, love?" he asked her and in the softest voice she replied;_

" _I couldn't sleep."_

 _Remus wasn't surprised. She'd only been with them for three days now, and while she was only five she was incredibly bright. They knew she understood, at least in broad terms why she was living with them now._

 _Remus hummed softly and stood, scooping her up into his arms and perching her on his hip. "Would you like some warm milk?" he asked her as she rested her head against his shoulder. She nodded._

 _Remus made his way down to the kitchen, holding on to her as he moved around the kitchen, warming milk in the small saucepan on the stove. When he was finished, he poured it into a glass and sat down at the table, moving Hermione to his knee and handed her the glass. It seemed to help, and when she was finished he set the glass aside, picked her back up and carried her back to her room. As he tucked her in, she spoke up again._

" _Will you read me a story?" she asked. It was obvious she was close to sleep._

" _Of course I will sweetheart, what do you want to hear?" he replied._

" _Sherlock Holmes." she said._

 _Remus smiled softly, picking out the waterdown, child friendly version of the great detectives mysteries before taking a seat next to her on the bed. He was about half way through the speckled band when he noticed she'd fallen asleep, so carefully he extracted himself from the bed, put the book away and went back downstairs to clean up._

 _When all was said and done, Remus finally looked at the time and decided to quit work for the night. He walked back up stairs, checked in on Hermione as he passed her room and then made his way into the master bedroom where Sirius was already fast asleep._

 _He went through his evening routine and when he was finished he climbed into bed. He was just settling in when he heard Sirius' voice._

" _And you were worried you'd be bad at this."_

xXx

Pansy was doubled over, laughing harder than she had in what felt like years. She'd been sitting in the family room of Malfoy Manor with Ronald for a few hours now. He'd been kind enough to stay with her, while Narcissa was at the hospital with Draco and things had been a little awkward at first. Surprisingly enough it was a joke about their relationship in school that broke the tension.

It was no surprise to anyone that they weren't friends growing up. They were from two entirely different worlds. Pansy had grown up a pampered princess of a wealthy family and Ron, who had also grown up wealthy was raised to work hard for what he wanted in life. That their families money wouldn't bail them out of their troubles.

Now, however, as Ron explained exactly what happened their sixth year of boarding school, when a plethora of fireworks were set off as finals were declared done, you wouldn't think they hadn't been friends.

"You're telling me that Hermione came up with the plan? That it was all her idea?" Pansy questioned.

"It wasn't necessarily her idea, but she heard all of us planning it and she knew it wouldn't work." Ron explained. "In fact, all the times we were caught pulling pranks were the pranks she had no part in."

"Who knew Granger was such a bad girl."

"She's definitely not as innocent as everyone assumes. I mean she was raised by two Marauders." Ron laughed.

They lapsed into silence as the laughter tapered off and Pansy took a deep breath. "I want to thank you for everything you've done for me. I mean I know we haven't always gotten along, but…" she left the statement hanging.

"The past is in the past. None of that matters now." he told her.

Pansy smiled. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"I suppose." he replied.

"What happened with you and Hermione? I mean anyone who watched you two could see that, no offense, you weren't exactly mature enough for her, but that doesn't seem to be an issue now."

Ron sighed. "We… just didn't want the same things in life. I wanted to get married quickly, have a ton of kids. She wanted to focus on her career."

"That makes sense." Pansy replied.

Before they could say anymore, Ron's phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket to answer it.

"Weasley."

Pansy watched as his mood soured the longer he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. He said very little before hanging up.

"Is everything alright?" she asked concerned.

Ron took an inordinate amount of time to put his cell phone away and Pansy got the feeling he was buying his time.

"Ron?"

He finally looked at her. "That was one of the officers we left at the hospital." he began. "Greg didn't make through surgery."

Pansy stared at him for the longest time, barely seeing him and Ron wondered if he should try to snap her out of it or let her run through her emotions on her own. Eventually she took a deep breath.

"Is it wrong that I'm upset?" she asked.

"No, it's not. Clearly he wasn't always like this. You loved him once."

"He really wasn't. He was so sweet when we met up again a few years ago. Almost bumbling. It was… cute."

"How did you two meet up again?" Ron asked.

Pansy smiled. "We were at an event for my father's company. He'd been in France for a few years working on a merger for his family's company. We had spoken briefly before my mother showed up to drag me off to talk to some associate of my father's and I sort of forgot about him. And then he was there again, later in the night, talking to Mr. Riddle, the head of Basilisk World Wide. It was actually Tom that brought us together. He sort of pushed us together, you know, distracted my mother to keep her from interrupting again. Greg asked me out for coffee before the night was over and the rest was history. We were married about a year later."

xXx

Hermione woke slowly the next morning, cuddling up to the warmth that surrounded her. A deep rumble, disturbed the surface of her pillow and Hermione peaked her eyes open to find Remus staring down at her. She squinted up at him.

"Why are you staring at me?" she mumbled sleepily.

She could hear the amusement in his voice as he spoke; "I remember when you actually fit in my lap. You used to fall asleep reading." to emphasize his point he booped her on the nose.

Hermione scrunched up her face, groaning in annoyance as she buried her face in his chest. Remus chuckled, Sirius' laugh joining it.

Not long after, she got up, disappearing into the bathroom. When she was gone, Remus and Sirius also got up. Sirius stayed behind to clean up the living room while Remus disappeared into the kitchen to start breakfast. Not long after Hermione returned, freshly showered, to find them both in the kitchen.

"Thank you." she muttered softly as Remus set a cup of coffee in front of her. Sirius was reading the paper across the table from her, while Remus puttered around the kitchen finishing up breakfast. It was rather calming if she were honest, and she truly missed this.

Growing up, Hermione wanted for nothing and that included affection. Remus and Sirius raised her the way they hadn't been raised, ensuring that she always knew she was loved unconditionally and wanted in their lives. She had everything she could ever want from material possessions to a large family and many close friends.

She remembered being nervous leaving for her first year of boarding school, only to love it and looking forward to returning after each break, while simultaneously looking forward to breakfasts at home just like this. Remus and Sirius taking turns making breakfast, whoever wasn't cooking got first crack at the morning paper. When she was little she would scribble in a notepad or read a book. As she got older she helped out, learning to cook from her dads, making breakfast, and most meals for that matter, a true family experience.

Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts when Remus set a plate of food in front of her. "Thanks, papa." she replied, digging in immediately. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until the food was in front of her.

They ate in relative silence and it was in the silence that Hermione couldn't help but notice the looks Sirius and Remus shot each other. She knew those looks all too well. The last time she saw those looks, she was thirteen and they ended up having a very uncomfortable conversation about the birds and the bees.

Hermione sighed. "What's wrong?" she finally asked. She watched as they shared another look, both hesitant to answer.

It was Sirius who spoke first. "We've decided to postpone our trip." he told her her.

"What? Why?" she exclaimed.

"Why?" he asked incredulously. "Hermione you were in almost killed yesterday."

"But I wasn't. I'm still here." she replied. "There's no reason for you to postpone this. You've been planning this trip for months."

"We can go anytime." Remus told her. "We own the island, it's not going anywhere."

"That's not the point. This is supposed to be your honeymoon."

"And whether we leave tomorrow or next month, won't change that fact." Remus continued gently.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't want you to postpone because of me. You've had to wait for so long already, it's just not right."

"We don't mind waiting a little longer. A lot seems to be going on with you and we want to be here for you." Sirius explained.

"What do you mean, a lot is going on with me?" she asked confused.

"Well, since the promotion, you've been working nonstop. You never seem to have time for anything else. And even when you do stop, your mind is always on work. Plus, ever since the break in you've been acting strangely. Your distant, your exhausted. We're worried about you."

"You don't think I can handle my job, do you?" she accused.

"Of course not, you know that's not true." Remus defended. "But you're only human, Hermione, you have to stop and make time for yourself like everyone else."

Hermione sighed. "If I want to enact real change I need to get to the top and that means long hours and a lot of work."

"You can do all of that with sacrificing your sanity and your health." Remus added.

Hermione shook her head, standing from the table and taking her dishes to the sink. "I'm not a child. I don't need to be coddled." she replied, her back to them as she scrubbed at the dishes.

"No one is saying that you are, or that you do. We just want you to know that you don't have to do this to yourself. We all believe in you, we all know what your capable of. You don't need to run yourself ragged. You don't need to do this alone."

"We worry about you." Remus added. "We just want you to be alright. I don't think either of us would survive if something happened to you." he continued softly.

Hermione refused to turn around, scrubbing furiously at her plate, despite it already being clean at this point. She felt one of them step up behind her and didn't fight Sirius as he took the plate away and turned her to face him. She buried her face in his shoulder as he pulled her into his arms. It wasn't long before Remus join them.

xXx

His mother had insisted he stay at the manor for a few days, but Draco wasn't up for spending the next two days being watched after by his fiercely protective mother. So, after checking on Pansy, and hearing about Greg, he called a cab and headed back to his own flat in the city.

Except the cabbie didn't pull up to his flat. Draco ascended the stairs, and came to the oh so familiar door at the very end of the hall. He raised his fist and knocked, not having to wait long before the door opened.

"Hey." Hermione greeted him, stepping aside without prompting. "How's Pansy?" she asked as he stepped through the door. He bent down to scratch Crookshanks between the ears.

"Better now that it's all over. Did you hear about Greg?" he asked, standing to height again.

Hermione nodded. "Uncle James called me this morning. How did Pansy take the news?"

Draco shrugged. "She's mourning the man he used to be, but it's been so long since he was that man she's having trouble remembering. Especially with everything that's happened."

Hermione understood that. She couldn't imagine falling in love with someone only for it to end so badly. A part of her wondered if something hadn't happened to Greg, some sort of influence that could turn the quiet young man into the violent predator she'd faced down in that courtroom. Of course, he could have always been that man, hiding his true colors beneath the surface.

"So," Draco spoke up, pulling her from her thoughts. "I think we should finally have that talk."

"I agree." she replied.

Neither of them seemed too keen on speaking first as they stood there shifting awkwardly, trying to figure out how to start. All at once they seemed to make a decision, speaking in a jumbled mess as they spoke simultaneously. They laughed.

"Go ahead." Draco told her.

"I think we should keep our relationship professional." She said.

Draco looked relieved. "I agree."

It seemed simple enough. They were clearly on the same page and both were rather relieved for it, but it didn't belay the fact that they had crossed a line they hadn't even ventured near since they were teenagers. In an effort to escape the awkwardness that settled around them sp suddenly, Draco made an excuse to leave and Hermione saw him out.

It wasn't until the door shut between them that Draco let his mind consider the conversation. An aching regret settled in his chest at that moment and he struggled to shake it, turning on his heels and heading back down the hall.

They weren't teenagers anymore. This wasn't a tryst in the broom closet after too much alcohol. Back then, they had taken the final step in the direction they had been headed for years. They had been rivals for so long, tension ratcheting up between them with each confrontation and finally culminating in a release of angst ridden hormones and a mutual attraction neither of them would admit to.

But that was then, and this is now. They weren't scratching an itch anymore. The numerous amount of consequences for their indiscretions were blatantly obvious, the worst of which the scandal that could destroy both of their careers.

And yet he found himself turning around nevertheless.

Unbeknownst to him, Hermione wasn't fairing much better. On the other side of the door, leaning back against it, every ounce of her will power was focused solely on not opening the door and calling him back in. She calmed herself with one deep breath after the other, until she was certain she was alright. She stood up straight and started walking away, only to stop short at a knock. She turned slowly and made her way back, peeking through the peephole to find the familiar head of blonde hair.

"Hey." he said when she opened the door.

"Hi." she replied.

She didn't know how long they stood there, staring at each other, but all of sudden he was moving forward and she was letting him pull her against him. They were kissing, backing into the flat, finding themselves in the same state as that first night.

It was late, later than either of them should have been up given everything that had taken place recently. Hermione watched as Draco slipped his shirt back on where he was sitting on the edge of her bed. She was sitting propped up against the headboard memorizing the way he moved. It took her a moment to realize his shoulders were shaking and another moment to realize it was because he was laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Draco turned to face her, still perched on the edge of the bed. His shirt was unbuttoned and he had yet to slip his pants back on.

"This certainly didn't work out as planned. Did it?"

"Does that bother you?" she asked, hating how insecure she sounded.

He watched her for a moment, studying the lines of her face, the uncertainty in her whiskey brown eyes. Draco got to his knees, crawling up the bed toward her.

"I wouldn't have turned around if I didn't want this." he told her, watching as her beautiful face lit up with a soft smile.

"Good to know." she replied, voice breathy as he leaned in to steal a kiss.


	16. Monday

Conviction

Chapter 16: Monday

A/N: In this chapter I've started to touch on Luna's history. As I was outlining these chapters I realized Luna's relationship with her father is similar to Dr. Spencer Reid from Criminal minds relationship with his mother. I tried my best to stick to that history.

I am not an expert in mental health. I have no personal or professional experience with mental health issues or this nature. I did as much research as I could but I understand that still doesn't make me an expert/authority of any kind.

TW: Mental Health TW: Torture

* * *

Her desk wasn't the way she had left it the week before. It wasn't blatantly obvious, but Hermione had been overly cautious as of late. Some might even say paranoid. After the break-in two weeks prior it had become increasingly obvious that someone was aware of what she was doing in her spare time. Aside from the obvious: her apartment was ransacked and nothing taken, there were little things here and there. In passing, her landlord mentioned a few strange men lurking around outside the building, her downstairs neighbor said there was a strange van parked behind the building for a few days before the break-in and again afterward, when the police were gone. So Hermione took precautions. Everything was put in a certain order, never an inch out of place. If anything was moved, there was a very short list of possibilities as to why. And there was a very short list of possibilities as to why her files were out of order.

Hermione reached over and pressed the intercom on her phone. "Miss Brown, could you come in here, please?"

"Of course, ma'am," her secretary replied. It took only a moment for the young woman to enter.

"Were you in here looking for something since last week?" Hermione asked.

Lavender Brown shook her head. "No, ma'am."

"And has anyone come in since then?"

"Just the maintenance man," Lavender explained.

"Man? It wasn't Mrs. Higgins?"

"No, ma'am. He said he was new. He had all his paperwork in order."

"Do you happen to remember his name?"

Lavender paused, trying to remember. "Gibbon, I believe. He was hired through the second chances program, I think."

"Alright, thank you." Hermione dismissed her.

Hermione sighed when she was gone, slouching back in her chair. It would appear whoever was keeping track of her either thought she wouldn't notice the intrusion or wanted her to know she wasn't working under their radar anymore. And of course there was the third possibility, one she had done a marvelous job of not considering over the last few days of idle time. She wasn't supposed to walk out of that courtroom. Greg's insistence on taking her down with him made all the sense in the world when one considered that someone had sent him in there in an attempt to not only take her out but cause a distraction of some sort.

Hermione was pulled from her thoughts when her intercom clicked on.

"Excuse me, Ms. Granger. Director Shacklebolt to see you."

"Send him in."

"Kingsley," Hermione greeted with a warm smile. "What can I do for you?"

Kingsley smiled back. "I thought I might stop in and check on you," he told her. "Also, knowing you won't tell me how you are, I thought we could discuss your search for a new supervisor for the Conviction Integrity Unit."

Hermione smirked to herself. "I have a few people in mind for the job. I want the team to weigh in on the final decision. They need to trust the new supervisor as much as the new supervisor needs to be able to trust them."

"I agree," Kingsley replied. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he shook it off and stood. "Well, that was simple enough." He chuckled. "Try not to over do it, alright?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, sir."

xXx

"Alright," Draco began as he sat at the head of the conference table. "What's everyone got?"

"I've got a case, bank robbery," Harry began. "Kid was arrested along with the bank robbers. He was charged as an accessory, he played get away driver. He claims he was sitting outside the bank when the robbers stormed out and got into his car. Forced him to drive, which led to a high speed pursuit. His fiance sent us the case. Says his court-appointed legal counsel was a joke, convinced him to plead guilty to avoid a trial and all he would get it probation at worst. He's now doing five to ten."

"Who was his legal counsel?" Draco asked.

"Burke."

"Yeah, that guy's an idiot," Blaise replied. "Tried to get a job with prosecutions, was rejected and ended up a public defender."

"Sounds pretty simple. What makes you think he's telling the truth?" Luna asked.

"He has absolutely no connection to any of the robbery suspects. Security footage shows him pulling up outside the bank after the robbery was already in progress."

"Sounds like the case is already solved to be honest," Draco replied. "Why don't you send that to Hermione? One of her investigators can take a look at it. If it's really that straightforward, they won't need us to look into it."

Harry agreed.

"Anyone else?" Draco continued. "Luna?" he asked noticing the file in front of her.

"A young man, Kevin Dupont, was accused of stabbing Ryan Meacham to death. Dupont was eighteen at the time and was still living at home. He snuck out of the house and was walking around when he bumped into Meachum. Meachum started yelling at Dupont, at which point Dupont ran away. The next morning Meachum was found stabbed to death in an alley a block from his flat."

"And they convicted Dupont for it?" Neville asked.

Luna shook her head. "He wasn't convicted. Dupont had just been diagnosed with schizophrenia and when he was arrested he devolved. He was deemed unfit to stand trial and was sent to a psychiatric facility where he's been for the last three years."

"I don't mean to be insensitive here, but what makes you think he didn't do it?" Blaise asked.

"Just because he's mentally ill doesn't mean he's a murderer." Luna explained. "I will, however, be the first to admit that the evidence against him is damning."

"So why this case?" Draco asked, though he was more than certain he knew why.

"There was a plethora of police misconduct during the investigation. I just think this deserves another look." she told them.

"Fair enough," Draco finally replied. "If no one else has a case they'd like to submit, I think this one is our best option."

When no one disagreed, Draco spoke up again:"Potter, Blaise, go talk to the lead investigator. Neville, the evidence of course, and Luna and I will go speak with Dupont."

xXx

"You're reopening the Meachum case?" Ludo Bagman had been a lead investigator for nearly seven years. He'd been on leave for six months due to an injury on the job, and while he had been fairly good at his job, his main concern had always been rising through the ranks and playing politics.

"Yes, it's come through the office recently and we feel it deserves a second look." Blaise explained.

"Well, I suppose I sort of understand why. I'll be glad to help any way I can." Ludo replied.

"We appreciate that. We really only have a few questions." Harry replied. "Did you ever have any doubts about Dupont's guilt?"

"At first I did. It just seemed like too much of a stretch that this random kid would kill a stranger because he yelled at him." Ludo explained. "But, then we found the murder weapon in his room and it was hard to dispute it. I just wish I had tried a little harder to protect Dupont."

"What do you mean?" Blaise asked.

Ludo sighed. "I had heard from my partner that Meachum had friends in the department but I didn't think anything of it to be honest. I didn't know who any of them were and really didn't think they would try to hurt Kevin."

"But they did?" Harry asked. Ludo nodded.

"After we arrested him we took him into booking. We gave specific instructions for the holding officers to keep an eye on him because of his condition. He was having an off day and we couldn't get that much out of him. The next afternoon I went in to talk to him, only to have to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. They'd withheld his medication, they hadn't fed him anything which caused the meds he'd already taken before we arrested him to make him physically ill." Ludo paused. "And then there was the supposed self defense. They'd neglected to give him his meds when he needed them the most so his down day just got worse and worse. He lashed out when they did something he couldn't handle and they used it as an excuse to beat him."

"They lost their jobs, didn't they?" Harry asked.

Ludo nodded. "They did. From what I understand they lost everything, and the only reason they weren't tried for assault was because there was some bigger case going on at the time and it would have sat in holding for some inordinate amount of time before they got around to it."

"I suppose that makes sense." Blaise replied. "What did the family have to say about this?"

"They were outraged, obviously, and for good reason. They still insist that their son is innocent. The evidence is damning though. I mean, at the very least I can see how Dupont would have snapped. I can't argue with the court's decision not to try him, but I sincerely doubt he's getting the kind of help he needs locked up in Azkaban's mental ward."

"Did you have any other suspects before Dupont?" Harry asked.

Ludo huffed. "The list is a kilometer long. Meachum was nasty person and an even nastier businessman. He'd rip off anyone to make a pound. There was no shortage of people glad to see him gone. Honestly, I was more surprised, given the nature of a lot of the interviews we did, that there weren't more police reports or official complaints against him."

"You think someone could have covered them up?" Blaise asked.

"The thought had crossed my mind."

xXx

Dr. Reginald Cattermole was an older gentleman, his fiery red hair graying around the edges. The lines on his face spoke of just how much his job weighed on him.

"Dr. Lovegood, Solicitor Malfoy, welcome." he greeted them. "The file on Mr. Dupont." He handed Luna the medium sized file.

"Rather light for a patient who supposedly murdered someone." she commented.

"I don't know how. The man's about as docile as they come." Cattermole explained, leading them down the hall. "He rarely speaks, rarely interacts with his fellows. The only time I ever really see him react to anything with when his parents come to visit."

"Do his parents come often?" Luna asked.

"Once a week, barring any unforeseen circumstances."

Dr. Cattermole led them down a long hallway lined with patient rooms. He stopped at the very end. The door to the room was open, but the occupant didn't seem to care. Kevin Dupont was sitting on the floor, flipping through the pages of a book.

"Why don't you let me talk to him alone?" Luna suggested. Draco nodded, watching as she entered the room. He couldn't hear what she was saying, her voice low and calm as she gained Dupont's attention. Draco watched her for a few minutes before turning to Dr. Cattermole.

"Has anyone else been in to see him since he's been here?" he asked.

"No, just his parents."

"And how is his treatment going?"

"What treatment?" he replied. "With all the budget cuts in the last few years, our patients are lucky they still get their medication. They think these people have committed crimes so they don't deserve to be treated well, or even humanely. No one ever stops to think about why they are this way or that whatever they did out there could have been prevented if someone had just cared about them and what they were going through, or had gotten them the help they needed earlier. Help they are most certainly not getting here."

"You said earlier you didn't think he did it. Why?"

"His delusions aren't violent. They're almost child-like, to be honest. He's also very shy, and according to his family he's always been that way. He doesn't start confrontations, he avoids them. I just find it hard to believe that this one moment he suddenly snapped. Mental illness can be unpredictable, but within that is a measure of predictability in individuals who have routines and habits. Mr. Dupont's routines point to non-violence."

"He's right." Luna added as she rejoined them. "He's very calm. I asked him questions that to see where his limits were and he remained placid."

"Yes, we're learned that even when you push his boundaries he simply asks you to stop. He'll get a little worked up if you continue to push, but again, it's not violent."

"Thank you for your time, Doctor. Could you please have a copy of Kevin's file sent to the CIU office?" Luna replied.

"Of course. And if there's anything else I can do to help, I will do my best to accommodate."

Shortly after, Draco and Luna were outside, climbing into Draco's car. Draco could feel the tension in the air, something quite palpable as Luna stared steadfastly out the passenger window.

"Are you going to be alright with this case?" Draco asked some time later. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her sag a bit in her seat.

"I assume you've finally gotten around to reading our files." she replied.

"It seemed appropriate." he told her.

"I'll be fine." she finally answered. "I just want to know that this kid wasn't singled out only because of his mental illness. I want to know they followed procedure and every avenue before they decided to take all the evidence at face value."

Draco nodded. He understood her concern. Growing up the daughter of a single father who suffered from schizophrenia himself would most certainly shape the way she saw the world.

Xenophilius Lovegood had raised his daughter as best he could. Her world was full of literature and fantasy; a magical place for a young girl. As a child she didn't know there was anything wrong with her father, but as she had gotten older she realized some of her father's quirks weren't really quirks at all. He had his good days and he had his bad days and when Luna was old enough she had him admitted to a private facility to ensure he would receive the care he needed, the care that she couldn't give him. It had broken her heart to take him away from the home he felt most comfortable in, but it was becoming increasingly obvious he wasn't safe there alone.

Luna visited him whenever she could, she even wrote him regularly, but sometimes it just didn't feel like enough. There were days she felt like she had failed him. There were days when she would visit and he would have no idea who she was. And then there were days when she was the only one he would listen to, the only one he trusted. Her father meant the world to her, she would do anything for her without hesitation and she would hope, that her father been in a situation like Kevin Dupont's, someone would stand up for him too.

xXx

"Blaise and Potter met with the lead investigator." Draco explained as he re-filled his wine glass.

"What did they think of him?" Hermione asked as he reclaimed his seat at her kitchen table.

"They said he seemed concerned about Dupont's health, but he stands by the evidence." Draco explained.

"That doesn't surprise me. Bagman didn't make Inspector by making waves. He follows the rules, kisses arse." she explained. "Occasionally he gets it right."

"Yes, well regardless, I have Neville going over everything again. In the meantime, Dr. Lovegood and I went to Azkaban's Asylum ward to see Kevin Dupont."

"And how did that go?"

Draco shook his head. "Less than helpful. If anything it only convinced Luna to push harder. She said he understood what she was asking but he didn't want to talk about it. He clearly just wanted to be left alone."

"And how is Luna handling everything?"

"She says she's alright. From what I've seen she's doing a fairly good job of keeping her personal feelings in check. I intend to keep an eye on her, however."

"Good." Hermione replied simply. "You said you had Neville going over the evidence. What do you hope for him to find?" Hermione got up from the table, taking her dinner plate to the sink.

"Whatever the original investigators missed. They collected evidence but they didn't do much else aside from testing said evidence. Their interpretations are minimal at best. They found what they found and that was apparently enough for them."

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

"They found the knife in his room, it matched the knives in the butcher block in his parents' kitchen. They had confirmation that he regularly sneaked out of the flat at all hours. He had a "confrontation" with the victim less than an hour before the murder. They never needed to go any farther because by the time they presented the case, the courts ruled him unfit to stand trial. They assumed he was guilty without actually looking too deeply into the evidence, and the public just accepted it as fact."

Hermione sighed. "Yes, well, that probably has something to do with the fact that one of Cornelius Fudge's loyals took the case. He smeared Dupont in the media. Made it seem like everyone with mental illness was a danger to the public. There was a brief moment of public hysteria caused by the blatant misinformation and then everyone forgot about it when a bigger case came along."

Draco didn't respond, staring down at the wine in his glass.

"Draco?" Hermione finally spoke up again. "When this case is done, don't pick another one right away. There's something that I need to discuss with you and your team."

Draco looked up at her, concern flitting across his face. "Okay." he replied, without argument. "In the meantime..." He took her hand and pulled her to him to sit across his lap. Hermione smirked, taking his lead and leaning in.

xXx

Blaise, Harry, Draco, and Neville stepped off the elevator the next morning, one after the other, to find Luna across the office space in the conference room.

"She's certainly here early." Blaise muttered. Draco simply hummed, making his way further into the office, bypassing his office for the conference room.

Luna was hunched over Dupont's medical file, making notes in a small note pad. "Come up with anything?" Draco asked, drawing her attention from her studies.

"Kevin wasn't exactly unstable before he was arrested. His medication was working, but like all illnesses, he had his up and downs. He just happened to be on a low note at the time."

"Does that mean he could have done it?" Harry asked as he took a seat the conference table, a copy of the case file in front of him.

"Anything is possible I suppose, but Kevin's file is full of notes explaining the nature of his delusions as nonviolent. He describes his hallucinations as his friends. They keep him company, basically."

"Could he have snapped, could they have changed?" Neville asked.

"I suppose it's possible. The mind is a complicated thing, and no one really knows what they're capable of until their put into a particular situation. However, witness have stated that Meachum yelled at Dupont and Dupont shrunk away, as if he was afraid."

"The prosecution's case was that his delusions started to harass him for being 'weak'." Blaise explained. "I don't know how they would know that, but they used that to support the idea that Dupont went back to kill Meachum and make the voices stop."

Luna sighed. "It's been known to happen, but it's more likely in a person whose under stress and by all accounts, Dupont was handling everything in his life fairly well, all things considered."

"You know," Neville spoke up. "All of this is entirely moot if the timeline doesn't match up. I was thinking about this last night. If the case had gone to trial, I'm almost certain it would have been dropped because of the timeline."

Across from him, Blaise picked up his copy of the file, slipping it open. "No one considered that the timeline didn't support the evidence? They didn't even try to recreate it."

"What?" Draco asked, confused.

Harry sat up a little straighter, flipping though his own file. "How did they find the knife?"

"Looks like a warrant based on the testimony of a confidential informant." Luna replied.

A unanimous air of skepticism passed around them. "Well, that doesn't sounds suspicious at all." Draco muttered.

"Meachum was friends with officers, I think they've proven pretty well how willing they are to violate moral convention for him." Harry added.

Draco sighed. "It looks like we're going to have to do what the original investigators didn't and walk the grid."

"If we're going to do that we should do it around the same time of night, that way traffic patterns, both vehicle and foot are similar." Neville suggested.

"Alright, we'll do that. Let's all meet outside the Bodega tonight, say midnight. That'll give us a few hours on either side to run through theories." Draco suggested.

There were no arguments and Draco dismissed them.

"Dr. Lovegood, a word?" he called out before she could leave. Luna turned to look at him.

"You were here rather early this morning." he said. "Everything alright?"

"I'm fine. Just wanted to get a jump on everything this morning." she replied.

Draco watched her for a moment. She'd always been difficult to read, now was no different.

"Alright." he finally continued. "Hermione wants to speak with the team when this case is over. When that's finished, I think we should finally take the time to go through all the files that have been piling up in the last few months. Finally organize them."

"I agree." she told him before turning on her heels and walking out.

Draco sighed, picking up his files and made his way to his office. He took a seat behind his desk, shuffling through the paperwork sitting out. Eventually he sat back, pulling out his phone and send out a text to Hermione.

'Dinner tonight?'

'Sorry, dinner with Uncle Reggie. Sirius made him promise to keep an eye on me while they were gone. Rain check?'

'Of course, running an experiment late tonight. ttyl.'


End file.
